Legend of the Wanderer of Vault 101
by Goldon J. Freeman
Summary: A FO3 Story, the entire tale of a Vault Dweller, from DLCs to main story, to GASP original storylines. A Vault Dweller leaves Vault 101 in search of his father, and finds himself entangled with the fate of the Capital Wasteland, and then some.
1. Vault 101

**Chapter One: Vault 101**

**Light. A sudden burst of light flooded the newborn's eyes as he entered the world. **The overjoyed father that was helping to deliver him was wondering a lot of things. Among these were simple things like, is the child a boy or a girl. This question was answered swiftly answered as James checked. He remembered the name that Catherine and him had picked out whenever they first found out that Catherine was pregnant.

"Catherine we've got a boy, a beautiful baby boy!" James told his wife. "Do you remember that name we thought of, Catherine? John?"

"Oh yes, it's very strapping," Catherine said, "I've always wanted a strong, dashing young son."

"Great, it looks like they've finished the gene projection!" James said, as he looked at the screen and saw a young man whos look seemed like the very essence of the good of humanity. He had medium long brown hair, blown back to show his forehead, he was handsome, with blue-green eyes, a square jaw, and a righteous look in his eyes.

"Oh my, he looks... He looks.. James... I think that something is going wrong..." Catherine told James before she went into cardiac arrest.

"What the... She's going into cardiac arrest...Get the baby out of here!" James yelled as he tried in vain to save his wife's life. "3... 2... 1... Go! No, do it again!"

**1 YEAR LATER**

"Come here son. You can do it John!" James said to his one year old son. John hobbled over unsure if he would fall or not. He managed to get to the playpen only to be caged inside by his father.

"You just stay here while daddy runs out to his office." James said as he walked out the door. John opened up his play pen and broke into his toy box so he could play with his teddy bear. A few minutes later James returned and found John playing in the toy box with the play pen door open. James chuckled and said

"You are so much like your father, always going on adventures. Well, since you're already out of your pen, how about I show you your mother's favorite bible quote? Come here, I'll show you," James said, gesturing to the saying on the wall. "Revelations 21:6, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely."

"Gah gah," John said, cutely.

"Well put son!" James said with a chuckle. "Let's go see if your little friend Amata wants to play." James said as he led John away by the hand.

**9 YEARS LATER**

**Light. A blinding flash of light flooded the new 10 year old's eyes as he entered the diner of Vault 101.**

"Agh!" John yelled, obviously in pain from the flash.

"Stanley! You turned the lights on too fast! Ya blinded the poor kid!" Officer Gomez yelled.

"Happy birthday!" All the people in the room shouted.

"Young man, I don't need to tell you how special this day is, do I?" Alphonse Almodovar, the Overseer, or self-proclaimed "Savior of the Vault".

_Oh God, here he goes on one of his speeches again, doesn't he know we don't care about him? Or his stupid "vocabulary"? _John thought absentmindedly.

"Well," said The Overseer, "I do not want to take too long, so here is your very own, Pip-Boy 3000a."

_Wow, that's the first good thing he's ever done for me!_

John strapped on the Pip-Boy, felt it tighten on his arm, and felt the sharp prick of a needle as the Pip-Boy took a blood sample to make sure it was never stolen, for whatever reason."Now, be good, young man, you'll be getting your first work assignment tomorrow." The Overseer said as he walked away, chuckling for effect other than personal enjoyment.

"Happy Birthday!" A voice that could be none other than Amata Almodovar said.

Amata was the daughter of The Overseer, but was nothing like him. She was nice, and a good friend. Sadly, her mother had died of reasons unknown during childbirth.

"Thanks Amata, what've you got for me? Guns and Bullets? Deans Electronics? Pugilism Illustrated?" John replied with a smile.

"None of those! Who's your favorite barbarian?" Amata said, not at all surprised at John's jokes.

"Grognak." John said.

"That's right! Grognak the Barbarian, issue 14, with no missing pages!" Amata said, proud of herself for finding this gem of a comic book.

"Wow... Where'd you find this?" John said, amazed and grateful.

"Ironically, it was in a box of my father's old things, guess we were all ten once." Amata said, surprised that her father might have had a sense of humor, let alone be young.

John whistled, surprised. "Well, I better let you get back to mingling with your guests, see you later!" Amata said as she walked away.

John walked over to Old Lady Palmer, and listened to her ramble about how the Vault was crowded back in the day. But soon she finished, realized her mistake, gave John a sweetroll, and said goodbye. John slowly ate the sweetroll, but was surprised when Andy declared it was time to cut the cake.

"Attention Everyone! It's time to cut the cake!" Said Andy as he lowered his sawblade onto the delicious looking cake.

Now, Andy was a Mr. Handy robot, who was equipped for Vault defense with a Flamethrower, a Circular Saw, and a Plasma pistol. Some say he has some equipment from the "Mr. Gutsy" models, distributed to the US Army at the time of the Apocalypse. And that circular saw met the cake in a very, very messy way.

"Andy! Why did you do that!" John yelled in a fit of anger.

"I am sorry sir.. I would offer you a piece of cake, but..." Andy said, his butler style voice tinged with guilt.

"Hey! Nosebleed, I'm hungry, and that stupid robot destroyed the cake!" Butch Deloria, the local bully, interjected.

"What's the matter Butch? Your mother drink up all the ration coupons again?" John said, with equal hostility.

"Grr... Why you little bitch!" Butch yelled, as he tryed to punch John.

John ducked the punch, and decided to try out a technique he learned in a pre-war book called "Pugilism Illustrated". John grabbed Butch's arm, twisted it, and delivered a heavy palm into his spine. Butch fell on the ground, in terrible pain. Later in life, John would be able to temporarily paralyze somebody for about 30 seconds.

"Hey! Stop that!" yelled Officer Gomez, who was watching and saw that Butch attacked John first, and hauled Butch off to his mother.

"Hey, are you okay? I saw Butch attack you, and then Officer Gomez nabbed him, what made that jerk attack you?" Amata ran up and asked.

"The bastard tried to steal my sweetroll that Old Lady Palmer gave me!" John replied.

"Wow! Watch your language!"

"Oh shut up, it's my birthday party."

"True."

James walked over to John, and said:

"John, that was Jonas on the intercom, we've got something to show you, come down to the reactor level." John followed James downstairs and heard Jonas make a crack about kids on a reactor level. John didn't really care and Jonas was disappointed.

"John, we have a surprise for you. You know how Butch 'misplaced' that switchblade of his? Well, Jonas and I found an old BB Gun and Jonas and I managed to fix it up."

"Wow Dad! You got me.. A gun!? Are we allowed to even shoot down here?" John said, surprised.

"We aren't allowed to shoot down here, but that will be our little secret, won't it?" James said, cracking a smile, "You won't tell anyone, won't you?"

"Nope! I've always wanted a gun!" John said, as giddy as a schoolgirl.

"Well, we didn't just get you a BB Gun, we got you a shooting range too!"

"What!? You did not.." John whispered under his breath.

James led John through a door to three small targets, about 15 feet away, separated by about 5 feet. James handed John the BB gun, and John quickly took aim and fired 3 times, Managing to hit all three targets.

"Wow! Looks like we got a deadeye on our hands!" Jonas called out.

"Watch out John, it looks like we have a RadRoach on our hands." James said.

"Watch this!" John said, taking aim at the large bug.

John shot at the RadRoach three times, somehow managing not to kill the beast. This infuriated the small child, and he just had to hop over the barrier and punch that unlucky roach in the head and James watched as John stomped the poor creature until it was nothing more than goo.

"Uh... Good job son.... It's just.. But you kind of got your Vault suit stained..." James said, more than a tiny bit embarassed.

"Thanks Dad!" John replied, thinking this was the best day ever.

"Hey James, help me get a shot of the big game hunter, eh?" Jonas said, not noticing the RadRoach blood over almost everything.

Jonas raised the camera and took a photo with extra flash.

**6 YEARS LATER**

James had just finished examining John for any diseases. The only thing he found was a minor case of Faking Teenager.

"You are a perfectly healthy sixteen year old young man, so yes, you have to take the G.O.A.T." James said, giving his son a dirty look.

"Aww... Come on Dad! It's just a stupid test. We have them every day." John complained.

"Which you nearly fail all of them, I know you are a clever boy, it's just you're lazy. Now go, you have a test to take." James replied.

John walked out the door, saying hello to Jonas, and walking down the hall. Then he saw something that pissed him off a lot. Butch and his "gang" were surrounding Amata, and mocking her for "running to her daddy" or something about them.

"Stop it, Butch! I told you I didn't say anything!" John heard Amata

"You little bitch, what's up with running to your daddy about us? You scared?" Butch said this to Amata, and needless to say, it seriously pissed off John. John walked over to Butch, and started the most insane thing he did that year.

"Hey Bitch? Why are you going after Amata? Are the three guys you "hang out" with not good enough anymore? Do you think you're a tough guy?" John said.

"Back off, Romeo, this isn't your fight." Butch replied, with his hand on the switchblade in his pocket.

"I believe it is." John said, before he sprang into action, punching Butch in the stomach, then kicking Paulie in the precious parts as he began winding up. Wally was about to attack John, before John oh so kindly headbutted Wally in the mouth. They all fell to the ground, each in terrible pain. Especially Wally.

"Hey Amata, sorry about the trouble these guys gave you, I hope I helped." John said to Amata, both were out of breath.

"Did you really have to do that?" Amata asked John.

"Mmm," John looked around, "Pretty much, yeah."

"Well, you know they'll just come back worse, right?"

"I'll just hit them again."

Amata chuckled at the macho-man coming through in John.

"C'mon, let's go take our tests." John said.

"Yeah, but you do know these things are staged right?"

"You are such a conspiracy theorist."

"No, I'm the daughter of the Overseer."

"No difference." John said with a smirk.

"You do have a point."

Amata and John walked into the classroom, followed briefly by a pack of heavily bruised Tunnel Snakes.

"What happened to you, Mr. Deloria?" Mr. Brotch, the teacher, said.

"I fell down some stairs." Butch said, not wanting to reveal that his ass got kicked.

"Some really hard stairs, I might add." John added with a smirk.

"Well anyway, everyone, get in your seats, We are going to take the dreaded G.O.A.T." Mr. Brotch said, adding extra dread to the word G.O.A.T.

About an hour later, after some slightly humorous questions, John was done with the G.O.A.T. He gave it to Mr. Brotch, who ran it through a Terminal, and John waited anxiously for the result.

"It says here that you are.. The combat instructor! Wow, never would've guessed, seeing what you did to Butch back there," Mr. Brotch said. John blushed at the end part.

"Well it looks like you're gonna be charged with training yourself and any others in martial arts, bye!" Mr. Brotch said.

_Well shit. Now I have to read Pugilism Illustrated for a job._

**3 YEARS LATER**

"Please John! You have to wake up! NOW!" Amata yelled at a sleeping John.

"Wha-What? What's going on? Where's my dad?" John said.

"He's... He's left the Vault!"

"What? We all know he can't! That door's sealed shut! What do you mean he left?" John said, thinking Amata was joking.

"I'm not joking! I'm being serious! My father's guards.. They.. They killed Jonas!" Amata said.

"What!? Those murderers!"

"I'm serious! They just kept beating him and beating him... He just couldn't take it..."

"I swear... If I get my hands on one of them.."

"Please, don't!"

"Sorry it's just.. They killed him.."

"Here I have a plan, you have to leave the Vault. They'll kill you if you stay. Go to my father's office, pick the lock, and enter the password into the terminal and.. Leave the Vault. Take my father's pistol, just for protection.. Please don't use it.. And take these bobby pins, so you can pick the locks on my father's door."

"No, you take the gun, I can't be trusted with a gun, I hate the bastards. Thanks for the pins though, might have to put up my hair. Now, I have to go.. We meet at the door." John said, before he looted his room for weapons and stimpaks.

He took a baseball bat, his BB gun, and a Grognak the Barbarian comic book for entertainment when he was "out there". He walked down the hall, and encountered a security guard. He had forgotten this particular guard's name, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that he was coming at John with a police baton.

John ducked the first swing of the baton, but the next swing caught him in the stomach. His mid-section hurt immensely, but John managed to tackle the man, and bring him to the ground. John then managed to pull off the man's security helmet, but only the plexiglass face mask. John then punched the guard in the nose, seeing the the nose in a disfigured shape, punched the guard again.

_Man this feels good. I need to do this more often._

After punching the guard three times more, John realized that the guard was out cold. He took the guard's baton, and walked further down the hall. He came to the door to the Atrium, and saw two Vault residents talking to each other.

"We have to run! This is our only chance! We could get out and make a name for ourselves!" The male resident said, before running, shouting "Don't shoot! It's me!" and getting a clip in his stomach.

As the other resident was making a fuss, John lept into action, running for the door, and managing to get through without a bullet in his stomach. He shut the door behind him and locked it. He ran as he heard shouting, and somehow ran into Andy and Stanley, fighting off some RadRoaches.

"Stanley! You're alive!" John exclaimed, breathless.

"Not like you could say for most of us, now keep moving. I don't want another appliance to wash the blood off of. " Stanley said, eager to shrug John off, because there were things to fix and 'Roachs to kill. Plus, his father betrayed us all

John continued on, until he was in the Overseer's room, where Amata was being interrogated.

"Alphonse! You son of a bitch!" John yelled as he entered the room.

A security guard tried to club him, but John ducked the baton and knocked the guy out cold. He then grabbed the Overseer and pinned him against the wall.

"Where the hell is Amata? If you hurt her, you don't know the things I would do to you. You would beg for death." John said. Amata watched in horror, as John noticed.

"Oh, so it's the little traitor," Alphonse said cooly, "Are you going to follow in the footsteps of your father? And betray us all?"

"He did NOT betray us!" John replied, angered.

"Oh yes he did, he let all of these RadRoaches in, and then we tried to get Jonas to tell us his partner's plans, but he didn't speak," said Alphonse, "He screamed and screamed, oh it was so fun, you should have heard him when we-"

Alphonse was interrupted by a knee to stomach, followed by a heavy punch to the face. Alphonse fell to the ground, unconscious. John turned around and was relieved to see Amata, scared, but holding herself together.

"Is he..?" Amata, fearful of the worst.

"No, but I'm surprised that I didn't kill him myself." John said, kicking Alphonse in the groin, just so he felt it in the morning. Or whatever time they woke up.

"I... I don't think I can go with you... My place is here, in the Vault. If anyone can survive out there, it's you." Amata said, surprising John.

"But.. I thought we were going to.." John said, his voice trailing off.

"I know, but the Vault needs me... I found the password for the terminal, you just need to pick the locks. The password is my name." Amata said. John realized that Amata didn't think her father loved her.

"Amata.. I understand now.. Don't worry about it.. I can survive out there alone." John was surprised that after he said this, Amata hugged him and whispered goodbye.

"Amata.. Goodbye." John said, but he had a feeling that this wouldn't be their final goodbye.

John walked to the Overseer's office, easily picked the lock, despite it being his first lock picked. He went to the terminal, entered 'AMATA' into the keyboard, and was surprised when he found a secret passage open near the desk. He walked through the passage and came to the Vault door. It was the first time in his life that he had ever seen the door. He walked to a nearby terminal and hit a button that read 'OPEN'. He pushed the button and was alarmed by a loud siren, followed by the screeching of the Vault door opening. Some security guards ran to the door, but all they saw was John waving goodbye amongst some ancient skeletons and signs. Amata walked into the room and saw John, and nearly burst into tears. She saw John, and then all she did was push the button that read 'CLOSE' as John went into the light.

**Light. A blinding flash of light greeted the pale Vault Dweller as he entered the Wasteland.**

* * *

Okay, that's my first fic! Hope you guys liked it! Please Review! It really helps!

Special Thanks

To Ethan, for being awesome, and being my proofreader!

To The. Frost. for providing the ispiration to write this story again!

To All of my friends over XB Live and in real life for the support and cameo appearances (in advance)

To Bethesda for being awesome!

To me for being narcissistic!

To Captain Delicious for being Delicious!


	2. First Blood

**Chapter 2: The Wasteland**

John walked into the great light, nearly blinded by it, as his eyes were used to the dim SimuSun Lighting from the Vault. It took more than a few minutes to adjust, as spending 19 years in a dim hole and then going out into the bright, peaceful, cheery, extreme, irradiated Wasteland. He didn't have agoraphobia, but the wide open spaces, combined with the bright light, freaked him out.

_Holy shit. Who turned on the light?_

John walked around the mountain the Vault was built in, nearly falling down the cliff due to his innability to walk on something that wasn't designed by Vault Tec. All of the tiny pebbles moved when he stepped on them, and he slipped a lot. As he finally made it down the hill, quickened by his slide after he didn't catch himself from a stumble.

John got up brushed himself off, slightly embarassed. He saw a RadRoach a few feet away, chirping. To John, it sounded as if it was laughing. John, to make an example of the 'Roach for the rocks, threw a rock at the RadRoach. A big one. And it didn't make it. RIP, brother of Fluffy and Jitters.

John, after that fit of rage, wandered off in a direction that he thought was West. As it turns out, it was East, towards one of the larger cities in the Wasteland. But John didn't know that.

John walked off West until he came upon a small town. He didn't see the large scrap heap on the horizon, but what he did see was a house with a mattress in it. He didn't know about the raider camp in the school nearby, or the other dangers of the Wasteland, but he did know bed=sleeps, so he walked toward the bed, eager to resume his sleep that was interrupted by Amata and all that escape business.

John laid down on the bed and quickly resumed his sleep.

_It's not that bad out here, infact, I could get used to this. All there is to worry about are RadRoaches and bright lights._

He was wrong, oh so wrong.

**6 HOURS LATER**

John awoke, and found himself in a very different place than he went to sleep in. His first thought was:

_Sweet! This place changes when you go to sleep!_

Well apparently John didn't notice the ropes around his hands and feet, and when he noticed he couldn't get up, he looked down and frowned. He barely recognized these cords, or whatever they are, around his hands, he just thought they should be black and elastic. Then he remembered that Mr. Brotch talked about something from the "Old World", as he called it, that was called a rope. Well he learned that these "ropes" were thick and burned if you moved too fast with them on your hands.

After about 15 minutes of struggling, John managed to free his hands. He then looked around and saw something that looked glorious. John realized that somebody had left a spare combat knife just laying by a desk.

He dragged himself over to the desk, and managed to cut himself free from the dreaded rope. From now on, he would have an admiration of combat knives and a dislike of rope. He managed to stand up, and looked into a broken mirror and saw that somebody had blackened his eye. He didn't feel it until now, but now it hurt a lot. But the pain was deafened by the rage.

_Whoever did this to me is going to get seriously fucked up!_

And just like that, he heard chatting in the hallway. John was smarter than the average bear, and hid behind something, managing to grab a broken piece of wood on the way. The raiders entered the room, having a conversation like this.

"Do you think this trash from the Vault has the password? I mean, it's not like any of us can hack it or somethin'?" One of the raiders said.

"He prob'ly does, seein' as he's out here, I mean, he's stupid enough to lea-" The second raider's reply was cut short, due to the collision of a board on the raider's head.

"What the hell finish your- Shit! Pris-!" The other raider was cut short by a knife in his stomach.

The raider fell to the ground, bleeding to death. John just stood there, sick to the stomach. He had just killed a man.

_But they were gonna kill me and take over the Vault!_

John's thoughts were interrupted by a multitude of gunshots from down the hall. A lone raider ran into the room, waving around a Jackson 10MM SMG. Luckily, John had taught a class on how to disarm a man with a gun. He grabbed the man's gun hand, kneed him in the stomach, and slammed his head against the doorframe.

After "disarming" the raider, John picked up the SMG and ran down the hall as fast as he could. Three raiders funneled out of a room, and John quickly gunned them down with his SMG. He jumped over their corpses and kept running, seeing the exit door at the end of the hallway.

A gunshot rang out, but it didn't hit John for one lucky slip. John had stumbled over some blood, who's he didn't know, and managed to catch himself by rolling and standing up. Luckily, as soon as the shot fired, John slipped and it went by, taking off his Vault-Suit's shoulder pad.

John then burst through the doors, coming out at night. It was a strange change from the light that the Wasteland had greeted him with. John didn't have time to marvel at the stars, as he ducked behind a large rock for cover.

"Kill that motherfucker! He killed Jimbo and Rickman! And Frost!" one of the four raiders shouted.

John replied simply by blindfiring the SMG. It responded with a click.

_PISSNOODLES!_

And just like that, a shot rang out. It didn't sound like one of the guns the four raiders had, infact, only two of the raiders had had guns. And as it turns out, one of the raiders who had a gun fell down, with a hole in the middle of his head. Another shot rang out, with the other gun-toting raider falling to the ground, this time with a hole in his chest.

"You fucking bastard! I'll rip out your eyes!" A raider with a nail board said as he ran towards the gunshots.

As the raider neared John's savior, who had just wasted his last two bullets saving some Vaultie's ass, managed to draw his sidearm, a sawed-off shotgun with only one bullet. Needless to say, the raider didn't make it. The savior began to walk toward John, but had ignored the last raider, who had a combat knife.

John made a mad dash at the final raider, who had forgotten him. The raider was about to stab John's savior as John tackled the raider and began bashing the raider's head against a rock, until the raider twitched no more.

"Thanks for saving my ass, my names Gage, Gage Wilson." John's savior, Gage, said.

"Ditto, my name's John, John Kusnir." Said John to his savior.

* * *

Finally! It is Done! Please review! It makes my day! And a favorite would be delightful!

Special Thanks

To Ethan/Captain Dreads and Josh/Captain Delicious for being my proofreaders and first readers!

To Me for being Narcisissistic again!

To Gage Wilson/CryptidHunter, an Xbox Live friend who just had to be in the story!

To The. Frost. for first review and producing another awesome chapter in his epic fallout fic! Go read it! It's called "The Survivors"!

To all of my (very few) friends in real life and in XB Live for their (lack of) support!

To Cade for second review! And sorry, I had already finished chapter two whenever I got your review, but I'll put you in Chapter three Fo Sho!

To Captain Delicious for retaining freshness!


	3. Holy Smokes VaultBoy! A BarFight!

**Chapter Three: Megaton**

As Gage helped John off the ground, they began a slightly awkward but hilarious conversation.

"Hey, you look sick, is that your first kill?" Gage asked John.

"No, that guy's further in. I watched him die." John replied grimly.

"Oh, how'd you kill him?"

"They kidnapped me, tied me up, and the dumbshits left a combat knife around. Recently sharpened, actually."

Gage started to crack up at this one.

"Do you mean those dumbasses actually left you, a tied up prisoner, a sharpened combat knife to escape with? One with a serrated edge?" Gage replied, laughing so hard that he had tears in his eyes.

"Hell yes, and they even left me a nailboard." John replied, replacing the earlier sickness with a sense of accomplishment.

"HAHAHA!! They fucking gave you everything!" Gage said, about to fall onto the ground with laughter.

"And they even left me a hiding spot."

"Wow, they are just getting smarter. What's next? They hand you their gun?"

They both laughed at this remark. But then they both noticed that the early dawn fog was disapating, and that this was whenever the raiders came out, actually figuring out that they could get a clear shot while their victims were still tired.

"Come on, we need to get to Megaton." Gage said, looking around.

"What the hell's that? A giant bomb?" John replied.

"One of the biggest settlements of the Wasteland, with great defenses to boot." Gage said, slightly amazed that this Vaultie didn't know what Megaton was.

"Well let's go!" John said, unaware that it was a pretty long walk, well, for somebody who lived in a small network of tunnels for all his life. Hell, he was pampered compared to Gage and other Wastelanders. At least he had water and food.

"It's a pretty long walk for you, but a brisk stroll for me. Do you have any weapons, medicine, ammo, porno mags, water, booze, or stims?" Gage asked.

"Well... I have a BB gun, a police baton, a baseball bat, a Grognak the Barbarian comic book, but that's mine. You lay your dirty hands on it and I will stab you with my newfound, sharpened combat knife. I also have some water bottles and stimpaks. Also, what the hell is a porno mag?" John answered, slightly confused.

"Dammit.." Gage said under his breath.

As the two newfound buddies trekked across the 1 hour walk to Megaton, John was getting pretty exhausted. Plus, his guide was a bit of a douchebag, although he was funny.

"What? Are you tired already? We've only been out here for 45 minutes!" Gage said, not realizing that John had not walked that far in his life, and also he was just getting used to the rising sun.

"It's just... It's too hot... Damn it.. How big is this place? 45 kilometers? Or miles? Or whatever the hell you call it?" John said.

"Dude.. The Wasteland is huge. 45 kilometers would probably be less than one percent. I didn't know you were just getting out, I mean, your Vault suit's dirty, and you had a black eye, so I thought that you got into a lot of fights."

"You do realize that the raiders probably dragged me through the dirt and beat me?"

"Shiiiiit, I forgot about that. My bad."

"No prob, by the way, I have a question."

"Yeeeesss?"

"What the hell is that giant hunk of scrap that hurts my eye when I look at it? It's looks like shit."

"That's Megaton," Gage answered, whispering the next part under his breath, "You dumbass."

"You do realize that I can hear pretty well, right? And I know what a dumbass is. And I think that you fit the role perfectly. Now go home, we'll call you"

"How the hell would you call me if I was in the Megaton common house? I don't think that sound travels that far."

"It does through a telephone."

"What the fuck is a telephone?"

"Not a fuckin' clue."

"Then shut the fuck up."

As the two walked toward the giant hunk of metal, Gage started saying goodbye.

"Sorry dumbass, I have to go, somebody said they wanted to meet me, and I can't escort you about Megaton, but I can get you in," Gage told John, "**HEY STOCKHOLM! WE GOT A NEW ONE FOR SIMMSY**!!!"

Stockholm responded by opening the gates, causing a lot of noise and hurting John's ears. After the skreeching and moaning of the doors was done, a giant gate opened to a really ugly town.

"This is it?" John said, a bit disappointed. I mean, he did grow up in a life of luxury compared to what these guys lived in.

"It's one of the only safe places, now see ya dumbass!" Gage said before leaving.

"Bye dickhead!" John replied, and then walked into the town known as Megaton. Almost immediately, a man who seemed to be too obsessed with cowboys walked up.

"Hey, you seem like another escapee from the Vault. Great, we don't need your kind causing trouble 'round here, ya hear?" Said the man.

"Yes sir." Said John, not wanting to cause trouble.

"Good to hear, my names Lucas Simms. And for some strange reason, I like you, so don't make me think twice about my judgment. I'm the Sherrif 'round here, and Mayor too, when the need arises." Said Lucas.

"My name's John Kusnir, and why are you only the mayor when the need arises?" John replied.

"Because Moriarty thinks he runs Megaton all of the other time, but I'm the law around here."

"Well that's... Nice to know, who's Moriarty?"

"The owner of the local bar, although the crazy sonuva bitch pisses in the drinks."

"Good thing I don't drink alchohol. I need to know where the common house is, can you help me?"

"It's that big building up there, with right next to the bar's sign."

"Thanks, and if you'll excuse me, I must be off. Wait, did a middle aged man with a beard pass by here?"

"Sorry, I can't help you, ask around, maybe you'll find him."

As John got that tiny piece of information, John decided to go to the local common house, thinking more people would be there. Plus, he was fuckin' tired. He ran into two men, one who was very tall, who had unnaturally long black hair, and was wearing blackened leather armor that had "JOBFORASIMMS" etched into the shoulder strap. The other was shorter than the other man, but still taller than John. This man was wearing reflective shades, another set of blackened leather armor, this time with "CRISIS IN WONDERLAND" etched into the shoulder strap. He also had something that was both very strange and very familiar to him, a guitar. It had "CRISIS IN WONDERLAND" etched into it.

"So you got the opening speech from Simmsy boy?" The taller man said.

"Err... Yes.. If you'll excuse me, who the hell are you? I don't remember seeing you anywhere." John said to the taller man.

"Yeah, we were out back saving your ass and the other kid's ass. You didn't know that there were raiders behind the school too?" Said the other man.

"How'd you take on that many raiders at one time?" John said to both of them.

"A song and a shitload of bullets. And before you ask, we were behind a rock with Stealth Boys and pistols. It was fun." The tall one said.

"What the fuckmuffin's a Stealth Boy?" John said to both of them.

"An invisibility cloak that you put on your wrist like a Pip-Boy." The shorter man said.

"That's cool, by the by, I didn't catch your names.." John said to the both of them.

"I'm Cade. I'm awesome and I know what a Pop-Tart is." The tall one said. John had not a clue in hell at what a "Pop-Tart" was. Maybe it was a sour explosive.

"I'm Josh, I bang women, make music, and smash skulls. I know what cocaine is." The shorter one said. John knew what cocaine was, it was a drug that basically fucked up your mind.

"Nice to meet you, I'm John. I know what a pissmuffin is." John said. Pissmuffin was one of the things that John shouted when he was frustrated or in danger. Along with pissnoodle, whom you met earlier. Or fuckmuffin. John had a tendency to say these things aloud and not realize it.

"Oh, and what you shouted when you ran out of ammo was fucking hilarious." Cade told John.

"Thanks.. I didn't realize I actually said that." John said.

"Well anyway, that was hilarious, and do you want to grab a bite to eat and you can tell us about your life in the Vault?" Josh said.

"Sure, I'm starving." was John's answer.

**5 HOURS LATER**

After John, Cade, and Josh ate, they chatted for hours, first grilling John for info about the Vault, then how he escaped, then asking about his personal life, etc. Then John turned the tables and spent hours talking with them about guns, music, the radio, Three Dog (Who John was growing to admire from what he heard.), and humanity after the Great War. He also asked about his father, to no avail.

As it turned dark, they decided to go up into the common room before the bar opened late. Although John hates alchohol (Some of his favorite people from Vault 101 were completely changed by alchohol), it was a great place to get info about his dad and have fun. After all, he was having a pretty fucked up day. As John was finishing retelling the story of his encounter with the raiders, Josh noticed that it had gotten dark outside.

"Story times over boys, let's climb deeper into the rabbit hole and go to Moriarty's." Josh announced.

John followed Josh and Cade into a bar that smelled mainly of piss and, surprise, alchohol. There were a lot of people in there, most were piss drunk, and all but one had drinks in their hands. That one was John, trying to get info off of drunk, drugged and just plain stupid people. When John first went to talk to the bartender, he was slightly afraid, but really didn't mind, he'd seen uglier, and he wasn't a fan of discrimination.

He looked over at what he thought was a zombie from a comic book banging on a radio.

"God dammit.. Fuck! Stupid radio!" the Ghoul bartender yelled.

"I told you Gob, it's not the radio, it's GNR, their signal's been shit lately." A woman dressed in skimpy clothing that looked like it'd been ripped to show off her precious parts. John didn't want to know what her job was, but he had a feeling it wasn't something he would want to do with her.

"Uhh... Excuse me sir, can I have a pure water?" John said to the bartender.

"Eh.. What!? You're not gonna hit me!? Or yell at me?" Gob, the bartender, said with surprise.

"What? Why would I do that?" John said to Gob.

"Sorry, it's just.. My condition, well, people don't understand, but Three Dog does. Say, what's your name? Mine's Gob, but Moriarty would kill me if he saw me socializing. By the way, Moriarty will kill me, but you can have a discount, and what the hell, you can have that water on the house!" Gob said, happy he found a friend in this harsh bar. It lifted his spirits.

"Thanks! My name's John, nice to meet you, by the way, have you seen an older man around here, with a Vault suit and a beard?"

"Well... Moriarty will beat me, but I saw a guy who said somethin' about goin' to Galaxy News Radio, but that's about it, and I don't know if it's your guy, but it's worth a shot. Well anyway, I have to go before- shit! I have to go serve these guys, see ya later!" Gob told John before he went off over to some guy in a suit with a tray of white wine. Well, yellow wine.

John walked over to a couple tables, one of which Josh and Cade were standing on, playing songs on their guitars. On the other table, two relatively attractive girls were dancing on them. It was quite obvious they were both drunk, but the crowd was urging them on. Until one of the dancers vomited all over the crowd around her. The other girl fell off of the table. John, being the quite the gentleman, and also seeing if she had any info, walked over and helped her up.

"Don't worry.. I gotcha.. I gotcha.." John said to the drunken performer.

"Are you a -hic- an angel thingy?" The dancer asked John.

"No, I'm just a helper, my name's John, what's yours?"

"I'm -hic- Ma.. Mary.. No... Maria! That's -hic- it!" said Maria.

"Do you have a room here?"

"Roo- room 221.." Maria said before she fell asleep.

John managed to take Maria up to her room and put her on the bed, managing to protect her from some sexually abusive citizens who were drunk out of their minds. John then walked downstairs and managed to get the other dancer off of the table, to the boos of the crowd and the displeasure of some people who wanted to see her fall and tear her clothing in all the right places. For them.

"Hey, you really need to get down from there. Or you might fall, and get hurt." John said to the dancer.

"Oh, oh-- okay.." The dancer replied.

"Hey, what's your name? Mines John, can you pronounce it? Joh-nnn... There? Was that hard to say?"

"Jho -hic- Johnn... My name.. What's that? Oh yeah.. It's Lauren.. -BURP-" Said Lauren, with a loud burp.

"What's your room number?"

"Two.. Two twenty.. Twenty.. What's before two? Oh.. One.. 221..." Said Lauren before passing out, like Maria before her.

John carried Lauren up to the room her and Maria were sharing, hoping none of the onlookers had the wrong idea. He quickly joined the crowd surrounding Cade and Josh, but the crowd started to get rowdy, realizing this guy took the dancers from them. Many shouted drunkenly at him, but one, drunk out of his mind, came and started pushing John. Now this drunk wasn't very tall or scary looking. Infact, he was quite short, and looked more like a douchebag than a raider. John heard some of the crowd shout "Hit him Dougie!", and John made sure to remember the name. The drunk was egged on by a few drunken bystanders, and whenever the drunk wound up to swing, John intercepted his punch, twisted his arm, and delivered a heavy palm into his spine.

_Deja vu, anyone?_

Unlike his 10th birthday party, John was much stronger, and could hit harder. He had temporarily paralyzed this "Dougie" and smirked.

The crowd was in a rage, thinking that John had broken Dougie's spine, and one was about to slug John whenever he was hit in the back of the head by a beer bottle. John heard Cade shout "All of you against us three! C'mon you pusscakes!" and he saw it was Cade who threw the beer bottle. He also saw out of the corner of his eye Josh pick up a barstool and hit one of Dougie's friends in the face with it. John ducked a punch and countered by slugging his attacker in the stomach.

Somebody had climbed on top of the table with Cade and Cade simply punched him in the stomach and threw him into the crowd. Somebody had gotten into John's face and spat on him. John replied by headbutting the douchebag in the teeth. Josh was beating the shit out of people with his barstool, and doing a pretty good job of it. Somebody had pushed John toward the stairs, and as soon as John got up, somebody punched him in the face. As usual, the rage deafened the pain, and John grabbed his attacker and slammed his head off the railing. John then ran upstairs, where somebody was about to throw a beer bottle at Josh, but John grabbed the man and threw him over the railing. The fighting continued for several minutes, until a shot rang out.

* * *

Special Thanks!

To Josh/Captain Delicous, Cade/Original Guy, and Ethan/Captain Dreads for the support!

To me for being narcissistic! And forgetting how to spell that word!

To Lauren and Maria for being drunken dancers!

To The. Frost. for having an awesome fic, inspiring me, and reviewing me!

To Dougie for getting his ass kicked! By the way, he's a real person, and a huge douchebag in a little body!

To All of My Friends and Family and all that jazz!

To Captain Delicious for blowing away my taste buds!


	4. Free FallingNew Armor Kicks Ass

**Chapter 4: Delivery and Deliverance**

After the shot had been fired, everybody looked toward the door. Lucas Simms stood there, holding a chinese assault rifle, with a mean look in his eyes. At his feet lay a man in leather armor, who had a bullet in his chest and a 10mm pistol aimed at Simms. Then it happened.

Simms was aiming his assault rifle at the man, but then the man fired his pistol and it connected with Simms' stomach. Simms fell to the ground, dropping his rifle and clutching his stomach.

John was the first to act, running towards the downed man and stomping on his hand. The man screamed in anguish, and dropped his pistol. John picked up the gun and fired a shot into the man's head, finally ending the man's torment, well, not really. The man was wearing a kevlar vest, and was just knocked down. But not anymore. His brain was a nice stew.

John then ran over to Simms, and tryed to help him keep from bleeding too much and shouting

"Get a doctor in here, NOW! Get him in here, Simms needs help!"

As soon as John shouted that a man that had a bloody shirt who had a sack at his hip came up.

"You the doctor?" John said.

"Yes, now get out of my way." The man said.

John stepped away, glancing at Simms one last time, and went over to Josh and Cade.

"You fucking owned that guy! He was like 'PEW PEW' and you were like 'Shut the fuck up bitch'!" Cade said to John.

"But that guy shot Simms... Who was that guy in the suit, anyway?" John asked.

"He was named Burke, was asking around if anybody would arm the bomb with a fusion pulse thingamagig." Josh said to John.

"Wait, there's a bomb?" John asked.

"You seriously did not notice that? A nuke, right in the middle of town, and you did not notice it?" Cade asked John, bewildered.

"In his defense, I never saw him in the square, and he probably was looking around him, at the people, not the bomb." Said Josh, understanding why John didn't notice the "Megaton" bomb.

"Well anyway, it's pretty late, we should get to bed." John said to Cade and Josh.

All agreed and went to the Common House and fell asleep swiftly.

**DURING THE NIGHT**

John awoke, except he was no longer 19, and no longer out in the Wasteland. Home. In the Vault. With Amata, and all of his other friends. Paulie, Marisa, Andy, and all of the others. And Dad. And Jonas, with no bruises, his hair wasn't even messed up.

"Happy 16th birthday John!" They all chorused.

John looked around, dazed and confused. He didn't have a knife at his hip, no holster for his new pistol, just his back support. He wasn't with Cade or Josh, everybody he cared for in the Vault was there. But something was wrong. They all morphed until they all had fatal wounds. Jonas morphed into an ugly and bruised form, Amata had a knife in her stomach and tears of blood. Dad morphed into a dog and was struggling to hold on, as apparently he hadn't drank or ate anything for weeks. Marisa had simply disappeared. Andy's eyes were burning out of his skull.

"No! No! Stop! Please! NO!" John screamed as they all surrounded him.

**9 HOURS AND TWO KILLER HANGOVERS LATER**

Late in the morning, the trio woke up. Josh and Cade, due to getting piss drunk, had almost as bad hangovers as they would have had in New Vegas. Minus the tigers. As John woke up later, he told them about the dream.

"It's just.. It was so real.." John finished.

"Trippy, you say that these were all people you knew from the Vault?" Cade said.

"Yeah, it was freaky, but I think my dad's fine, I'm just worrying too much." John said.

"Well anyway guys, my head is killing me.." Josh said.

"Mine feels like it got raped throught the ear canal." Cade said.

"Eewww..." John said to Cade.

"Well anyway guys, we should find a job to do, we're running out of caps." Josh said.

"I heard that Lucy West girl wanted a package delivered." John offered.

"Yeah, I heard her Dad would pay us if we delivered it." Cade said.

"Then let's go to see her." Josh said as they walked out the door.

**1 HOUR LATER**

After they had went to talk to Lucy and agreed to deliver the package, Lucy lit up like a light and told them that they had to go to Arefu. Lucy even punched in the coordinates onto John's Pip-Boy. Now, they were outside the gate and walking west, ironically. They were walking along the road John took to Megaton, except backwards. They went through Springvale, stopping to take a piss on the bodies of the raiders. John pissed on the raider whose skull he had cracked.

_**Insult to injury, you sonuva bitch.**_

After stopping, they continued west.

**2 HOURS LATER**

The three had walked Westward for about two hours, whenever they had noticed a large metal husk turned on it's side.

"What the hell is this?" John said.

"I think.. It's a car.. It looks like it's been armored, too." Josh said, inspecting the husk. On the side of the husk, it said 'U.S. Army'

"Holy shit! This is an army supply truck!" Cade shouted.

"Wait.. You mean as in guns, food, armor, kevlar and all that other shit?" John asked Cade.

"Maybe, but we don't know how much has been scavenged, let's check it out." Josh said to the both of them.

They all had to work together to pull open the door, which had been rusted shut. After prying open the door, the trio nearly shit themselves in amazement.

None of the equipment was scavenged. Although there was no Power Armor, which none of them had the proper training to wear anyway. There were combat shotguns, assault rifles, and all sorts of other things. Even the skeleton of the driver.

After scavenging all they needed, they decided to upgrade their armor. Cade and Josh both added extra pouches to their leather armor, also sewing combat armor pieces into a few key places. Josh and Cade offered to armor John's Vault suit, and John agreed. Pretty soon John had changed into some ill fitting army fatigues and went outside to keep watch and not spoil the surprise.

**3 HOURS 27 MINUTES AND 53 SECONDS LATER**

"Hey John, it's done!" Cade shouted out the door. John took a quick look for anything out of the.. For lack of a better word, ordinary. He walked into the husk and saw his Vault suit. Now, it was armored heavily with combat armor pieces, it was equipped with two bandoliers for John's new combat shotgun, assault rifle, and pistol. It also had holsters for all of his guns, plus with multiple scabbards for blades of varying lengths. The back support was changed into a grenade holder, with a scabbard right for a small sword above it. The chest and other parts had reinforced combat armor, which had been painted green.

"Holy shit! This is awesome!" John exclaimed.

"Thanks, we spent a long time working on it, and we also found something you'll like. C'mon, we'll show you." Josh said, leading John and Cade to an overturned crate. It read 'CONTRABAND FROM CC AND VD'.

"Hmm... Contraband from Chinese Citizens, I'm guessing, and Vault Dwellers," John read, "Wait, you guys do know that the Vaults were just a hoax, right?"

"What!? How's this?" Josh exclaimed.

"They were just a social expieriment to see how people would cope in certain situations, do you really think they wanted to save people?" John told them both, as his father had told him when he turned 18, which was followed with some strict advice 'not to leave the Vault, no matter what happens'. I think you (All six of you, come on people, start reviewing and favoriting! It's not that hard, just click 'review this chapter'! It takes up to a minute at most! Please? I'll give you a special mention!) already know how that turned out.

"Cool, what was 101's purpose?" Josh said, intriuged.

"To see how long resident's could last without hope of ever leaving and to test the power of the Overseer. Mainly, the Overseer is the lead dickhead." John explained.

"Oh, I would fight him. Now, let's see whats in the crate." Josh replied. The trio turned the crate right side up, and opened it. What they saw was amazing. It was filled to the brim with exotic blades, custom weapons, you name it. (And also, you should review it. That would help with the writing process's speed.)

"Go ahead, you pick first, you need guns more than me'n Cade do." Josh said.

"I think he just called you a pusscake!" Cade said, laughing.

"Ah, shut up." John said to Cade.

John picked out two custom Desert Eagle .50 magnums, which he put into his chest holster/scabbard combination. He also picked out two curved knives, which he recognized as kukris. (Look it up, it's the knives Alice used in Resident Evil Extinction, if you must know right now.)

"Come on, let's get to Arefu." Cade said before putting some of the better weapons into a backpack and kicking open the door. John and Josh picked up some backpacks from the ground and followed suit.

**1 HOUR LATER**

The trio had followed a river, which led them to a large bridge.

"So that's Arefu?" John asked, unimpressed.

"Yeah, it's disguised to look like a bridge from afar, plus, it's easy to defend from raiders, unless they tried to starve you out. But we all know they aren't smart enough to do that." Josh told John.

As they approached the bridge, they thought they heard yelling in the distance, but it stopped almost as soon as it started. John started going up the bridge, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a landmine.

"Back up, I'll shoot it!" Josh told John.

John backed away to a safe distance, taking cover behind a smaller rusted husk, and heard the ensuing explosion. He looked, saw hole that had appeared due to the explosion, and continued on. Josh and Cade followed closely. John was knocked down by a grenade exploding near him, but his suit kept any shrapnel from reaching anything vital. Or scratching him.

_**Damn, I'm falling in love with this suit.**_

"Damn! You fellas scared me! Now get on up here 'fore raiders get to you!" The man who had thrown the grenade said to the trio.

The trio ran up to the man, who was older, with a lot of wrinkles around his face. They weren't smile wrinkles, either.

"What the fucking hell is your problem! You nearly killed John! Do you just throw grenades at EVERYBODY who comes up the ramp!? We didn't even have our fucking guns drawn!" Cade yelled at the man.

"Look.. I can explain, the Family's had me on edge lately, and I thought the trio of you were new members sent to mess with us, I wanted to send a message to the Family," The man said, "The name's Evan King by the way."

Evan was nearly shitting himself, as three men who were armed to the teeth were extremely pissed at him.

"Look.. I'm sorry that I nearly blew you in half it's just- Holy shit!" Evan was interrupted by gunshots.

Luckily, the raiders that fired on them had more bullets than brains, and were firing in the air and yelling at them.

"Oh yeah! You can't touch this! You can't hurt this! You know why!? Cuz we're the- HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!! THEY CAN SHOOT BACK!!!!!" The apparent leader of the raiders screamed before the guy next to him had his head blown off by John's Desert Eagle.

John was standing above the roadblock they were hiding behind, firing back. Josh was on the side, firing his assault rifle at the raiders. One of the raiders had unpinned a grenade and had thrown it. It landed between Josh and John's cover, and Josh quickly moved over to the husk with Cade. John, due to some bad quick thinking, ran forward and fired 3 shots at the raiders. Three of them fell, but the leader was still standing, surprisingly. John doubted that the leader could shoot straight, but he was wrong. Dead wrong.

John dropped two of the three remaining raiders, and the leader was the only one left standing. The leader raised his chinese pistol and shot at John. It connected with his chestplate, and barely made a mark. But it was the kick from the bullet that affected John. John was propelled backwards, falling through a hole in the bridge. He fell slowly to the water below.

Cade saw all of this, and shot the raider's gun out of his hand and made a mad dash at the raider. Evan and Josh were too stunned by what was occurring to shoot the raider, plus they didn't want to hit Cade. The raider was not as fit as Cade, and sure as hell didn't have rippling abs. A con of being a cannibal and having a lot to eat, of both dog and human. Cade had soon caught up to the raider, but they had both ran off of the bridge and into the Wasteland.

As soon as Cade got close enough, he grabbed the bastard, and threw him facedown into a large rock. Cade then walked over, grabbed the raider's head in one hand, and put the other onto the rock for support. He then proceeded to smash the raider's head into the rock.

"Who's the fucking king of the Wasteland now! You fucking murderer! You overly macho dickface! I'll rip your fucking balls off!" Cade yelled at the coward.

He continued to bust the raider's face until not even the slut who bore him could recognize him. Not that she'd want too. He'd inherited her ugly face and drug habit.

After the raider's face was a nice stew, by some divine punishment from God, the raider still wasn't dead. Cade lifted his head off of the rock, and threw him to the ground as hard as he could. And Cade has rippling abs and can throw very hard.

After the raider had been thrown to the ground, Cade had started stomping on the poor sonuva bitch's chest until nearly all of his ribs were cracked or broken. Then, as if the raider had really pissed off God, he was still breathing.

"Please.. Don't.. I.. I'm sorry! I-ow! Won't -cough- do ARGH!!! it.. again..." The raider said begging for his useless life.

"Sorry doesn't cut it, you dirty, rotten, unloved, fatass, stupid, cannibal, retarded, smelly-as-shit, son of an ugly whore and a feral ghoul!" Cade told the poor bastard.

Cade then proceeded to take the raider's own small chinese pistol and shot the bastard in the testies. And as if he hadn't suffered enough, as if he tortured so many people that his body really needed to be punished that much, the raider was left alive. And he couldn't walk, would never walk again, and would lay in the Wastes for the rest of his dirty, rotten, useless life. Which was about two weeks, since he had just eaten and drank and tweeked on jet. Seriously, even I feel bad for the bastard.

After leaving the raider to bleed out, Cade went to the river and looked frantically along the shore. John hadn't washed up, and he couldn't see John's broken body on the rocks. While strange, that was good. Unless John had hit the ground and bounced like a ragdoll. But after even more frantic searching downstream, Cade couldn't find John. He decided to get Josh to help him search.

"Josh! I couldn't find him, get your lazy ass down here and look!" Cade yelled up.

"Alright! I'm coming down!" Josh shouted back.

**1 HOUR LATER**

About an hour later, John woke up. After he fell, he managed to land in the river, and like the luckiest bastard to ever live, he survived. He had stayed awake, and had doggy paddled into a small boat and had fallen unconscious. But some shouting from Josh, Cade, and Evan had managed to wake him up. John tried to shout back, but he was too sore to yell back. He tried to stand up, and after several attempts, he managed to get up.

And at this exact moment, Evan had noticed the boat and noted that somebody could have doggy paddled into the small vessel.

"Hey! You boys, can any of you swim?" He shouted.

"I can't, but Cade knows how!" Josh shouted back.

"Well tell him to swim over to that boat! I think I saw something there!" Evan replied.

As Cade managed to swim over, relieved to actually get a hint, he saw John walk out onto the small deck.

"Holy pisscake! You're alive!" Cade shouted to John.

"Can anything kill me with this kickass armor on?" John replied with a smirk, but in truth, it was a struggle to stand and talk at the same time.

"Probably a deathclaw." Cade yelled back.

"What the fuck's a deathclaw?"

"Forget about it! Need a ride back?"

"Yeah, I can't swim for shit."

"You made it to the boat."

"That's because it was downstream."

"Shut up and get in the water."

After a brief struggle to get across, they managed to get back to Josh and Evan.

"I found him! He was jacking off in the boat!" Cade yelled to the both of them.

"Oh shut up!" John said to Cade, trying to stand up and dry off.

"C'mon, we can stay the night in my house." Evan said.

**10 HOURS LATER**

After John woke up, Evan asked the trio if they could do a favor for him and check the houses of the residents. There were Ken Ewers, Ian West, and Karen Schenzy that needed to be checked out. John offered to check the Wests and give them the letter, Josh volunteered to go see the "Lonely woman", and Cade was left with the Ewers. Cade was warned the Ken's wife was a bit "out of it".

The trio set off in separate ways to check on the residents.

* * *

It's finally done! Sorry for the extra day's wait, I didn't have any ideas, and I wanted to make a longer chapter, I hope this didn't disappoint! Got some action and some key moments in this chapter, too. So don't bitch to me. PLEASE REVIEW!!!

Special Thanks

To Josh/Captain Delicious and Cade/FirstBloodProductions/Original Guy for the reviews and plot devices they add to the story!

To The. Frost. for the reviews! And that was a kick to the teeth, except it was a headbutt.

To My friends and family and other assorted bullshit!

-OneshotProductions wants you to review. If you review you will get a cameo, just leave what you want to be named in the review, but don't go into detail, just.. Review.


	5. I'm not dead!

**Chapter 5: Close Encounters of the Cannibalistic Nature**

As Cade went to the Ewers' hut, he was kind of pissed that he had drawn the short straw and had gotten the worst family in Arefu. Ken Ewers was a very displeasant person at best, and Braily Ewers wasn't exactly the smartest. Hell, she might even be dumber than the average raider, and that's seriously stretching it. Josh had the potential of getting laid, and John would probably get paid. As Cade walked up and pounded on the door, he was met with an odd response.

"Oh hi! You must be here with my fall Playgir- I mean the furniture catalog!" A bright and cheery voice said through the door.

"Errmm... Alright.." Cade said before opening the door.

"What the hell are you doing!? Get out of my house!" A shorter man said.

"What the hell are you doing in your house?" Cade replied with a smirk.

"I live.. Shut up! Why are you here!?"

"King sent me to check on you, now I gotta go." Cade said as he walked out the door, wishing he had a book to throw to the girl, just to confuse her.

Josh had to go the Schenzy's home, and he was happy to go see a lone woman, for reason's I cannot tell you. But I bet you can guess them. Josh pounded on the door, waiting for a response.

"King, if that's you, I'm going to kick your ass so hard-" Karen said before being interrupted.

"Sorry lady, I'm not that dumbass." Josh replied.

"Are.. Are you with the Family?"

"We ain't punks, we just smash skulls and bang women. King sent me to check on you."

"Oh, well, tell him I'm okay."

Josh walked off to report to King. He saw Cade and King sitting next to each other, John having not returned yet.

**(EXPERIMENTAL FIRST PERSON TIME, LEAVE COMMENTS IN YOUR REVIEWS!!! DID I MENTION YOU SHOULD REVIEW?)**

I had to go check the West's house, having volunteered, for some reason that kinda pissed off Cade, because he wanted to get paid or sumthin'. Well I didn't really give a fuck, I walked over to the West house. As it turns out, Cade was the lucky one. When I opened the door, I saw possibly the most disgusting thing in my life. And I'd been kidnapped by raiders.

The Wests had their faces eaten. EATEN for God's sake! And it looked like somebody had sucked out their blood!

I instantly vomited, and just managed to lean against the wall.

I stayed there for five minutes, just trying to catch my breath. After the five minutes had passed, I stumbled over to take a closer look.

The Wests had bite marks all around their faces, like a hungry animal just got to work on their faces. But for some reason, there was little blood around where the corpses were. That was very odd, considering the bitemarks around the West's necks. Was there a fuckin' vampire on the loose or somethin'? And the wierd symbol on the wall didn't help. Mainly because it was written in blood.

I walked out the door, stumbled over to Evan King's, the bastard that tried to kill me, then asked me a favor. I saw Cade, Josh, and that rat bastard. I told them simply.

"The Wests are dead." I said.

"What? How?" King asked.

"Long fuckin' story." I responded.

**(EXPERIMENTAL FIRST PERSON TIME IS OVER! COMMENT ON IT IN YOUR REVIEWS!! REVIEW OR I WILL EAT YOUR CHILDREN!)**

King was astonished at the information that John had just relayed to him.

"Well spit it out, boy! We don't have all day!" Evan said.

"You do realize that, you technically owe us, and the fact that you tried to kill me isn't really helping? Well anyway, let me tell you guys a story.." John began.

**1 HOUR LATER**

"Holy shit! The Family killed the Wests!" West stammered out after they went over to the house to check everything out.

"Now what the hell do we do?" Cade asked.

"We should bash their skulls in." Josh said, sounding pretty serious.

"Do we even know where the hell they are?" John asked.

"Well... You guys could check Moonbeam Outdoor Cinema, there's been reports of raiders, and they eat people." King said.

"Well.. We can kill raiders, and what? Aren't there like 5 in one camp? If we sneak up on them, we could easily kill them all." John said, not knowing how wrong he was.

"Yeah, lets go bash some skulls in." Josh said, finalizing the decision.

The trio walked out the door, I would say into the annals of legend, but John had already done that when he opened the Vault Door. It was Cade and Josh's turn.

**1 HOUR LATER**

After an hour of walking, the trio spotted a large screen, playing a movie in which 5 people were fighting about 23 post apocalyptic then realized that it wasn't a movie, but an improvised security feed, hooked up to a security camera on a rotting telephone pole overlooking the rocky hill. The raiders outnumbered the Wastelanders 4 to 1. John also noticed a familiar face in the carnage, Gage.

"Shit! We have to help those people!" John blurted out.

"What the hell are you talking about? They'll fucking kill us!" Cade responded, a bit surprised that John would suggest such a thing.

"Well," Josh intervened, "We do have the drop on them, and we are pretty heavily armed, I have a couple of grenades, too."

"Even if we have the drop on them, what do we do when they see us?" Cade replied.

"We have the height advantage, and we all have assault rifles. Plus, me and you have the silenced hunting rifles, with plenty of rounds." Josh stated.

"Well, what are we waiting for, lets start raining hell!" John said before taking a grenade off of his belt of 5, primed it, and threw it baseball-style at a raider.

The explosive slammed into the raiders face with enough force that it knocked her down. Her "friends" ,and I use that term loosely, thought that she had been hit by a rock, but then realized rocks weren't green. The grenade exploded, killing 3 nearby raiders, the raider that was knocked down, and knocked two raiders to the ground.

And then there were 19.

Gage noticed the knocked down raiders, and had heard the explosion. At first, he thought they were more raiders, but then he realized that the grenades were only aimed at the raiders, and he thought he saw John among the rocks above, tossing grenades at the raiders, but he promptly dismissed the thought. The kid was greener than radioactive goop, and was probably in Megaton.

John saw Gage glance over at the rocks, but John couldn't exactly jump down and say hi. He took his last grenade, primed and threw it as hard as he could at a raider, hitting him in the crotch. And grenades are hard and heavy, so you can see how much that hurt him. Plus, they explode. The explosing killed 3 raiders, including the one on his back, and a rogue piece of shrapnel managed to rip off another raiders nose. She wasn't as pretty after that. And the bullet that one of the Wastelander's accompanying Gage put into her hand didn't help. Then, another of Gage's companions, this one carrying a strange crimson sword that John recognized as a katana, sliced her across the stomach. Miraculously, or as some divine prank, the raider was still standing. She raised her 10mm handgun, not trying to kill anybody but herself, but to add an insult/injury combo to her already existing injuries, the man with the crimson katana (3rd cameo for a reviewer, just so you guys know. You could be.. 5th, because I have another lined up. Try to guess who the other cameos are. If you do, you get a longer cameo, and teh lulz. Hint: One is Delicious, the other is atFirstBlood.) and the black combat armor cut off her gun hand, and the other had a bullet in it. So the raider just stood there, not even having the strength to lose balance.

And then there were 16. Or 15, if you count Miss Icannotdie.

John, realizing he was out of grenades, noticed that one of the Wastelanders was in danger. He took the desert eagle for his right hip, holding it in his left hand. He was ambidextrous, but he preffered his left for most things. He fired a shot at the raider coming at the Wastelander, and managed to hit him in the heel. The raider fell head over heels, making the scene quite humorous. It looked like the raider stepped on a banana peel. John knew what a banana peel was, because in the Vault, they had a garden deeper in, for making some delicacies such as tomatoes, apples, peaches, John's personal favorite, and of course, bananas.

14 were left standing.

Then, John noticed a raider throwing an object at him, and he didn't wait until it hit. He jumped over the rock, and sailed through the air, hit the gravelly hill, and rolled clumsily down the hill. A raider with a nailboard charged at him, but the raider stopped dead as a crimson blade penetrated his armor, both sides, and the blade stuck out from his torso, dripping blood. The dark armored man took his blade out of the raider, and the raider fell to the ground. He said, in a gruff voice:

"Get up, maybe the good shard of the Enclave will save-" He said before being shot in the throat.

4 on 13.

Before John could reply, he noticed the man was never going to talk again. John noticed out the the corner of his eye, a raider charging at him with dual combat knives, arms spread wide out. John replied by quickly drawing his kukris out of thier scabbards and giving them both a nice resting place in the raider's eyes. John's blades were crossed, and he noticed that all of the raiders had gathered in the middle.

It was a really stupid idea, given the fact that Cade and Josh had a lot more grenades left. And there were only 12 of them.

"YOU CAN'T KILL ALL OF US!! WE'LL KILL YOU!!!" one raider screamed. John wondered if they were very brave, or very stupid.

It turned out to be the latter, as the Wastelanders fired on the raider's dropping more than John could count. John decided to join the firefight, and unslung his assault rifle and fired into the crowd. The raiders were decimated, but the last one standing fired off one shot, and that shot connected with one of the Wastelanders' heads. John thought it was Gage, because he didn't see him.

John sprinted angrily at the raider holstering his magnums. All of the Wastelanders, including Cade and Josh, stopped shooting and watched this amazing scene.

As John closed in on the raider, the raider tried to shoot John, but then realized his clip was empty. John threw out a punch, connecting with the raider's cheek with his hard left hook. The raider stumbled backwards, but managed to stand upright. John walked over, threw an uppercut, and clipped him in the chin. The raider was still standing though, and John decided to try a technique he had been trying to perfect before he left the Vault. The raider managed to steady himself, and struck a fighting pose, thinking he could kick this former Vaultie's ass. He was oh so wrong. John did a roundhouse kick, managing to knock out the raider's two front teeth (now THAT'S a fuckin' kick in the teeth). The raider fell to the ground, and John simply kicked the raider in the teeth until there were 13 rotten pieces of enamel on the ground. Then he kicked some more, and realized that the raider just fidgeted. He felt better after he just kicked the raider in the balls and called it a day, and turned around, realizing that Gage was standing there, and that the Wastelander that was killed, was just another ghoul, Dead Ghoul, that is. (3rd cameo!)

* * *

IT'S A CLIFFHANGER BITCHES!!!!

Sorry for the long wait, and the short length of this chapter, I've been going through a lot of shit. Ya know, the typical "you tell your best friend your biggest secret and he tells everybody" thing?

I just wrote this chapter to kill Writer's Block with multiple kicks in the teeth, and to inform you that I am not dead.

First Special Thanks in a long while!

To every one of my loyal reviewers! All four of you!

To the two cameoes in the chapter!

To Cade/Original Guy and Josh/Captain Delicious!

To everyone of my readers!

To my sista!

To God!

To Bethesda!

To Spaghetti!

To Captain Delicous for not selling out to a big company!

First Ever Review Response Section

* * *

-NICOLE- I didn't think up the name Amata, only John and some of the sections, but thanks for the review!

-BAGELMASTER- There will be bagels.

-crimson katana- I have my story planned, and it will stray from the main story a lot, there will be plenty of OCs and original sections, but I'm not going to make the Enclave good guys, because I wouldn't have an antogonist, and I hate the bastards.

-The. Frost.- There's your damn kick in the teeth.

-Dead Ghoul- Thanks for the review and compliment! You get a cameo as a dead ghoul!

-cryptidhunterglw- Thanks for the great ratings, and I kind of liked your story, I'll leave cc in a review later.

-CaptainDreds- Don't worry, the cameoes will be small things, usually with someone dying.

-CaptainDelicious- I love you... Err... What?

-CadeAtFirstBloodProductions- Have you changed your oppinion on Fan Fiction now? Will you laugh at me now? Huh? I didn't hear what you said over your pusscakeness!

It is done!!!


	6. Raiders heads are fun to smash and stab

**Chapter Six: Just a Few More Friends**

John looked at Gage, bewildered that he was still alive.

_**I could have sworn he was shot in the head, but apparently Ugly over there took the bullet for him.**_

__John glanced over at what he heard were called Ghouls, people who were exposed to an ungodly amount of radiation, and didn't have the good fortune to die. There faces looked like they had some sort of flesh virus, and they usually had no lips to speak of, having rotted off. They looked like the zombies John used to think of, after seeing them in old holotapes in the Vault. John allowed himself to travel backwards through his memories, and thought of the Vault.

The Vault was a fallout shelter, but it wasn't really designed to save anybody. Basically, if you signed up for the Vault program and were chosen for Vault 101, you had to live without hope of ever leaving the Vault. Apparently, they painted a future where nothing could have survived, despite the contrary. The world was filled with assholes, douchebags, crazy fucks, and a handful of righteous souls, but humanity was still alive and twitching. And mutating.

Vault 101 was designed to test the role of the Overseer, or the head douchebag, who acted like the king of the Vault. Since radio transmissions painted a much bleaker future than what actually happened, which was the equivalent of the world drinking Nuka Cola while eating Pop Rocks, and then sticking a handgun down it's pants and pulling the trigger, but managing to make it out alive.

The pre-recorded radio transmissions simply said, "OH MY GOD! EXPLOSIONS!", well, not in those words. The point is, even though the world was in really, really, extremely bad shapel, people survived. John's father had told him of the dangers of the Wasteland, having originated from there himself, and warned John that even if he had the chance, he should stay in the Vault. James had told John of some mythical places like Rivet City, The Pitt, a place with a fuckload of radiation, but organized civilization, and James had heard that on the West Coast, a group of people had organized a great government called The New California Republic.

"Hey! Dumbass! Hello?" Gage shouted at John, dragging him back to the present.

"Wow, you're alive?" John said, blinking away the flashbacks from the Vault.

"No, I'm a zombie, you dumbshit."

"Haha, funny, how you insult me when I'm the one who saved your ass. If it weren't for me, you'd be dead."

"He's right, they were gaining on us, and we had no way to escape." A red haired girl, about the same age as John, said.

"Wait.. Who are you guys?" John asked the Wastelanders accompanying Gage.

"I'm Andy, nice to meet you." A Wastelander wearing what John recognized as glasses, and he had "Boba Blaster" etched onto his laser rifle.

"I'm Rena, say do you have any whiskey? I don't drink it, I collect it, and store it in my secret hideout." The red-haired girl said.

"Okay.. What're you guys doing out here anyway?" John asked the other trio.

"You know how I told you I had to meet a contact? Well he sent me, two other dudes, a ghoul, and this chick," Gage told John, whispering the next part, "Just between you and me, I think I'm gonna get laid."

"What did you say?" Rena piped up, hearing the last part.

"Uhh.. Nothing.." Gage told Rena, embarassed.

"He said he wanted to shag you." John told Rena.

"Oh, he does that all the time, I just ignore him." She replied.

"How long have you two known each other?" John asked.

"About a month, mainly because it's easier to stay alive in a group. He told me what he did for you." Rena explained.

"And mainly because you have nice tits." Gage put in.

"Shut up." Rena told him.

_** These two get along nicely...**_

"And I'm mainly here because I needed a job. Raiders killed my dad, and I ran out of caps at Moriarty's. The damn bastard told me the whiskey would make me talk to Daddy when he came back, then everyone tells me he pisses in the whiskey." Andy interjected.

"Wow, I feel your pain, my Dad left me with a couple of physcotic fucks in the Vault." John said.

"Wait.. You were in a Vault?!" Andy asked John.

"You don't see the big yellow 101 on my back? Seriously?" John asked Andy.

"You're from 101!? That must be so cool!" Andy asked John, excited.

"Not really, when you have an annoying Overseer with a giant dick hat breathing down your neck." John told Andy, thinking of his Vault days.

"What the hell's a dick hat?" Andy asked, a little confused, a little disgusted.

"He means the guy thought he was the biggest fish in the pond." Gage put in.

"Exactly." John said.

"Hey! John! You okay!" Cade shouted out from his vantage point.

"Yeah! You and Josh should come down here!" John yelled back.

"Alright!"

John watched as Cade and Josh slid down the hill and ran over to the trio and John.

"Who're you guys?" Josh asked.

"I'm Gage, the leader of the group."

"What? Who said you were the leader? Well anyway, I'm Rena."

"I'm Andy, nice to meet you."

"Hey Andy, were you at Moriarty's a couple nights ago?" Cade asked Andy.

"Yeah.. Wait.. You were the guys in the barfight!" Andy said.

"Yep, I broke that one guy's teeth with my head." John said, smirking.

"Or when you smashed that guy's head off of the handrail, classic! Or when you palmed that annoying midget in the back!" Andy said, excited again.

"Well.. We could talk about you guy's bar brawl, but I really think we should get going, do you guys want to team up? I think that the contact might have sent us here as a trap." Gage said.

"Well.. We have to seek out this gang called 'The Family', do you guys know where they hang out?" John asked Gage.

"Yeah, they hang out near Meresti Station, we could go with you, we're out of work, and they're actually pretty cool there." Gage said, surprising John with his last statement. They walked off toward Meresti Station, to meet the mysterious Family, and find out all is not what it seems.

**1 HOUR LATER**

After an hour of walking, the group noticed a group of Wastelanders up ahead, but something about them looked suspicious.

"Hey guys, I'm gonna climb on that hill, and I'm gonna see if they have any weapons or anything, then I'll come back down." John said, running silently toward a rocky outcropping that was the vantage point. Believe it or not, John was good at climbing, spending his days, or nights, if you count the time they go to bed in the Vault, climbing around the Atrium's network of pipes and other parts that stick out. He could go almost anywhere in the Vault, and once he got used to the gravel in the Wasteland, it was easier to climb the rocks and something that the rest of the group called "old buildings that got seriously fucked up when the war came".

John went prone, propping his assault rifle on a rock and looking through the scope they scavenged from the truck they previously came by. Rena, Gage, and Andy loaded up on weapons, and the original trio restocked on ammo and grenades, repaired their armor, and found found more things to customize their weapons with. John found a scope, a green bandana, and some "experimental" silencers for his magnums and other weapons. They did not stick out as much, and degraded at a much slower rate, mainly due to the soft metals that made up the silencer mixed with stronger metals, like steel, with a tiny percentage of titanium. It was extremely high tech, and it

kicked ass, now he didn't stick out as much, but he lost the satisfying blast of his guns.

As John scoped out the Wastelanders, he saw that they had armor under their clothes, blood on there hands, with no obvious wounds, tears on their clothing, and he could see the visible imprints of assault rifles on two of the Wastelanders. The fact that they had mohawks that had been smoothed down didn't help either.

John wanted to shout to the others about the Raiders, but he couldn't because they were approaching the rest of the group, and the ones with assault rifles were "scratching their backs" apparently getting prepared to draw their weapons. If he shouted now, they'd be decimated. But then, something very, very bad happened.

One of the Raiders drew what looked like a grenade, and threw it at the group. It didn't exploded, scattering shrapnel everywhere, but it did explode, making a loud booming noise and a nearly blinding flash. When John's eye's readjusted, he say the rest of the group, laying on the ground, with the raiders trying to figure out how to make a strange collar work.

"Damn.. How do I... I can't find the button.." John heard the murmurings only faintly, because his ears were ringing from the blast. When his mind cleared only seconds later, he noticed some very mean looking men, and one girl, about to kill his only friends in the Wasteland. This got him very angry, and when he's angry, he's a damn good shot.

John managed to crawl over, and prop his gun on another, bigger rock, so he could crouch, and he had better aim. He looked through the scope, clicked his M11X US Experimental Assault Rifle to "semi-auto". And this gun, when it's on semi auto, is like a sniper rifle. About the same caliber, that is. It's a high powered weapon, designed for kicking ass.

He aimed at the raider with the collar's head, and pulled the trigger. The faint whiz of air passing through his silencer was all that John heard, besides from the ringing in his ears. The raider flew back with the shot, missing quite a few brain cells. The raider's partners in what was once known as crime all drew their weapons, revealing only one had a gun. One had a knife, another had a lead pipe, and the last one had what John recognized as a baseball bat. The other one had an assault rifle, M11 US Standard Issue.

John fired another shot, this one finding a nice home in the the armed raider's head. He stood still for a second, his only motion his head exploding like that radroach John killed with the rock, the first in a long line of Wasteland casualties. The pieces of brain and blood splatter all his partners, and the body fell limp. The others started to panic, shouting in a mix of anger, despair, and most importantly, fear. Then the unthinkable happened. John's gun had jammed, because he did not clean it when he and the others were at the truck.

John, even angrier now that his precious rifle had jammed, forgot about his magnums strapped to his legs, near his extra magazines for magnum and rifle, with a hand full of shotgun shells, he holstered his rifle, and slowly climbed down the vantage point turned sniping spot. He managed to sneak around the raiders until he was behind them, leaving them at a severe tactical disadvantage. John drew his kukris, and began a silent but quick run at a raider who was checking around the rocks, with his back turned. He stuck his left-handed kukri right beside the raider's shoulder blade, kept his kukri in the man's torso, and move his hand in a lightning fast motion, and kept running, performing a move he had created on his own, managing to slice through the raider's heart and left lung in one fatal stab and swipe combo. The man struggled to stand, but didn't make a sound other than some suppressed gurgling.

John watched the raider fall, and smirked when he realized this was the raider who threw the grenade that might have killed his friends.

Three down, 2 unlucky son'sabitches to go.

Looked at the other two raiders who saw their comrade, or unsteady ally, fall, and a raider with a lead pipe walked over to investigate. Big mistake. John ran up to him, and before he could yell, he had two sharp, long, boomarang shaped blades through his lungs.

"Two words. Fuck. You." John told the raider, who only responded with a gurgle.

The last raider looked to see his partner with two kukris in his lungs, and readied his baseball bat and ran as fast as he could, swinging the bat with all his strength. John couldn't pull out his kukris in time, but he managed to duck and did a back roll away. He stood up again, realizing the raider had hit his comrade so hard in the face with the baseball bat, that he had smashed man's skull so hard that a shard of bone became embedded in the dead raider's brain. The raider flew back and hit a large rock behind him hard enough that John heard the back of the dead man's skull crack.

One unlucky sonuvabitch with a baseball bat is still standing.

The raider turned his attention over to John, who had leaped over the rocks and was checking to make sure his friends were okay. He noticed they were all breathing, but they were dazed and unconscious. John nearly forget about the raider, but turned and glanced, saw the raider readying another assault, this time a vertical smash, and John dodged.

John didn't move his foot out of the way in time, and the bat came crashing down on it. Luckily, the raider had pulled back on the bat so he could swing again, and the strike did not break his foot. John ducked another powerful swing, and managed to tear the bat from the raider's hands. John hit the raider with the tip of the bat in a spear like manuver, breaking his nose and leaving him stumbling. John knocked the raider down with a light kick, that was more like a push with his leg and said,

"Who's the one with the bat now?" John asked the raider before he jumped on the raider's chest, hearing cracks and the raider's screams.

John got off the raider, backed up, and waited for the raider to somehow stand up. John then smashed the bat into the raider's right knee, breaking it and making the raider fall onto it, adding to the pain. John hit the raider in the ribs, hearing another sharp crack as bat meets bone. The raider cringed and John asked,

"Any last words?"

"Fu-fuck.. Y- you..." The raider responded.

"Very elegant." John told the raider before he swung the bat as hard as he could in a motion not unlike a golf swing, connecting with the raider's chin and managing to force the raider's jaw bone into the raider's brain.

None are left, and John is the victor. Mainly because he just kicked their asses.

"Hey, wake up and smell the dead guys!" John shouted at his unconscious comrades.

"Mmmno.. No.. Carl.. Don't leave me.." Gage murmered in his sleep. John really hoped that didn't mean what he thought it meant.

**15 MINUTES LATER**

After all of the group had gotten off of the ground, John found out the grenade that had been used to incapacitate everybody was called a flashbang, a non-fatal grenade that is used by slavers and raiders to stun people for capture.

"What the hell happened here? This guy has no face, this one has no head, and that guy has so many broken ribs I don't want to count them." Rena asked John.

"Some genuine ass kicking. With a fair bit of stabbing, shooting, and baseball bats thrown in." John replied as he surveyed the carnage surrounding the group.

"Oh, you left your knives in that dude over there." Rena said, motioning to the raider who he had stabbed in the lungs.

"Oh, thanks. Lemme go get those and we'll be off." John said, walking over to the raider, taking his kukris, and spitting in the dead man's face before telling everybody to get a move on.

**ONE HOUR LATER**

The group had finally arrived at Meresti Station, with one obstacle in the way. A modern day "highwayman" was holding them up with a sawed off shotgun. He demanded they give them water, or he'd shoot them, but a couple other things convinced him otherwise.

"Give me all of your water! Or-or I'll.." The man yelled at them

"Or you'll what?" Cade asked in a mocking tone.

"I'll kill all of you!" The man shouted.

"Dude.. Your gun's not even loaded, and if it was, you could only kill two of us. If you're lucky. Then the rest of us would draw our guns, and shoot you in the head." Josh told the man.

"That's wrong! I-I'll just reload!" The man yelled back.

"We'd shoot you while you're reloading..." Gage said, getting increasingly frustrated with this wannabe highwayman.

"I'd throw a grenade!" The man shouted, his voice starting to waver with fear.

"You don't even have any grenades.." John said, rolling his eyes.

"I have a lot behind this rock! You just can't see them!" The man shouted back.

"Why in hell would your most powerful weapon be behind a rock that's 10 yards to your left?" Rena said, not knowing the distance, so she just guessed.

"Because- because I was trying to scare you.. Please.. I need water.. Raiders killed my friends.. I used up all of my ammo trying to escape.. Please.. I've been surviving on puddles of rain water.. Please... Just help me..." The man said sincerely.

John then did something that surprised them all, mostly the man. He took his satchel with his supplies off of his shoulder, and he threw a bottle of water over to the man, only saying

"Here, next time you ask nicely, now get the hell out of here."

The man stammered a quick thank you and apology, and ran in the direction of Megaton.

"What the fuck was that! You gave him WATER!?" Gage yelled at John.

"I have three bottles, what's the rush?" John said surprising everyone.

"Wait.. You mean you've been carrying all that water all this time?" Josh asked.

"Yeah, I also have a couple of canteens, why so surprised?" John replied.

Nobody replied, but most of their jaws dropped. Water was more valuable then gold, more valuable than caps, and caps were the main currency of the Wasteland. They could buy guns, ammo, armor, repairs, and Water.

"Can I have some? I haven't had any for a day.." Rena asked.

"Wouldn't you have died of dehydration? I mean, with the hot sun and all.." John asked.

"Humans actually have evolved in such a short period of time that they need a lot less water to function at greater qualities, something I learned from a scientist, he said the radiation mutated our cells so we could absorb water out of the air and last longer." Cade asked.

"Where'd you learn this?" John and Josh asked simultaneously.

"A scientist in Rivet City, Pinkerton or something." Cade replied casually.

John heard it again, the bastion of Civilization, what apparently was what the Pre-War people had before the Great War.

_**Rivet City? Sounds like a pretty important place, I wonder what it's like.**_

__"That's awesome!" Josh told Cade.

"Thanks, I know." Cade replied.

"Guys, I think I found the entrance!" Rena shouted from about 100 feet away.

"Alright! We're coming!" Josh yelled back.

Cade, Josh, and John walked over to the door and reunited with Andy, Gage, and Rena, and tried opening the door. It was locked, John forgot about his bobby pins, and decided to try plan B. Break the lock. With a swift kick and a bit of luck, the metal part that encased the door's lock broke off and all they could see was darkness. They opened the door and walked inside, John taking point. They walked along the dark subway tunnels, the only problems the encountered were a few traps, like a heavy brahmin leg that hit John he when broke a tripwire, and a few easily avoidable bear traps that would have been seriously wounding, except that John's Pip-Boy light made them easy to see. Another problem was the unnerving beeping of mines in the distance.

The group continued on, avoiding mines that strangely did not go off when they stepped near them.

"Hey! Stop right there!" A voice in the distance.

The group looked up from avoiding mines to a man under a harsh light. John's eyes were the first to adjust, having been a Vault Dweller all his life. Or so he thought.

"Are you with The Family?" Josh yelled back.

"Yes! Give me one good reason that I don't blow you all to hell!" The man shouted out. A little fun fact is all the mines are fake, and are designed so that the guard can easily stop the occasional raider or merc or group of Wastelanders.

"We just want to talk to your leader! We won't hurt you! I swear on my life!" John shouted back, hoping for a peaceful solution to all their troubles, as he noticed that if the Family wanted Arefu dead, and plus, he could get back at King for nearly killing him.

"Alright! I'm letting the pale one in! The rest of you go back to the door or I'll kill him!" The guard said, turning off the mines, and leading John into the light.

**OUTSIDE**

"Do you think he'll be okay? They killed all of Arefu's brahmin." Rena asked, being the last one to emerge from the darkness.

"Yeah, that kid's gonna be okay." Josh said, reassuring them all.

**MERESTI STATION, LIVING AREA**

"So you say he's in there?" John asked Vance.

"Yes, but he's in isolation, he needs to think about some things." Vance replied.

"But his parents are dead, he needs some comfort."

"He killed them."

"What?"

"His hunger drove him mad, and made him kill them. He nearly ate their faces, but we arrived before he went too far."

"What do you mean?"

"He only nipped at their faces, we showed him the proper way to feed.

"What's the proper way?"

"Only drink of the blood, do not partake of the flesh."

"Sounds like a vampire."

"We are not vampires, my name is not Edward, I cannot turn into a bat, and I can see my reflection in the mirror."

"Sorry, just making an observation.."

"No, it's fine, outsiders barely make friendly contact, they usually try to kill us."

"I can tell modern-day vampire hunters aren't very good at killing you." John said, making Vance smile.

"Even though you are friendly, you do not understand. You must know that we are not vampires, we just act like our night brothers."

"I am sorry, I was making a joke, may I please see Ian West, I have a letter from his sister, his only family.."

"We are his Family now.. But a letter from his sister would brighten things up.. Head on to the Isolation Room."

John said goodbye to Vance, and walked over to the Isolation Room, typed the password, and opened the door. He stepped into the Isolation Room, which was a converted Pre-War bathroom, saw Ian West sitting on a bed, and asked,

"Do you want a letter from your sister?"

Ian looked at John wondering many things, and when he finally processed the info, he had a letter in his lap.

* * *

IT'S ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER BITCHES!!!

Hey guys, I decided to atone for my absence with a really long chapter! I hope you guys liked it! Also, next chapter I'm gonna introduce a fuckton of characters!

Special Thanks!

* * *

To My Friends, Family, and all assorted bullshit.

To bullshit for being fun to say!

To all my new readers!

To Captain Delicious for being better than Chuck Norris!

Review Responses

* * *

Gina- Thanks!

Nicole- Thanks for the reviews, compliments, and I'm gonna make sure you're in the next chapter fo sho!

Captain Delicious- Thanks, I had the idea for a countdown, and I might use it again in the future!

BrookieCookie(:- That's what she said.

Frost- You forgot to review, review or it's barrel time.


	7. End Arefu

**Chapter Seven: Some more extra friends**

Ian West stared blankly at the letter from his sister. His sister, the best part of his life, she had left Arefu for Megaton, trying to get them a house there. And she had sent them a letter, she was the only one who could control his Hunger.

"C'mon kid, let's get you back to your sister." John said to the boy, helping him up and walking out of the Isolation room, saying goodbye to Vance and the rest of The Family.

_**Nice people, hard to believe that they suck.. Blood.**_

**1 HOUR LATER**

"Wait.. You're saying that The Family isn't responsible for the Wests!?" Cade exclaimed.

"Yes, I can't really explain, but look who I managed to find.." John said, motioning to the door.

Ian West stepped out, blinking at the sudden sunshine.

"You found him? Without any bullet wounds or stab wounds?" Josh asked.

"He's still standing, can't you see?" John asked with a smirk and a bright look in his eyes.

"What even happened there?" Rena and Andy asked simultaneously.

"Let me start.." John said, thinking back.

**2 HOURS EARLIER**

John walked through the dark tunnel with the guard, who remained silent. The guard led John into a large, well lit chamber that had about six or seven people walking around. They seemed normal, or the Wasteland's definition of normal, except that they were pale, almost Vault Dweller pale. John looked down at his white hand, and realized that even though he had spent 3 days in the Wasteland, he was still deathly pale. He blushed, and his face turned into a bright red instead of a bright white.

"So I see you're the one who wants to visit us?" A man who carried himself like the leader said.

"Yes.. I'm John, John Kusnir, what's your name?" John asked, trying to be polite.

"I am Vance, I see you are.. A Vault Dweller? And you are from Vault 101? That must have been a fun expierience escaping!" Vance said, noticing the 101 on John's back, and the 101 carved into his chest plate.

"So I see you like leaving your childhood home, nearly killing people you knew all your life?" John said, angry and offended.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was like that, I apologize." Vance said, realizing his mistake.

"It's okay.. It's just.." John stopped when he say a woman who looked like Nova from Megaton smiling and winking at him. And he guessed she copied Nova's profession (Prostitution by the way).

"Oh, don't worry, she does that to everyone." Vance said, noticing what his, for lack of a better word, prostitute was doing.

"I can tell.. So.. Why did you attack Arefu and kidnap Ian West?" John asked, jumping to the point.

"Alright, I see you have been misinformed. The attack on Arefu was not us, infact, we stopped it from being fatal." Vance told John.

_**Stopped it from being fatal? What does this guy know?**_

__"Stopped from being fatal? How do you explain that symbol on the wall? Or the dead people!" John asked Vance, his voice rising.

"Calm down, we heard screaming and we went to investigate." Vance said, launching a long conversation about the tenants of the Family, and what actually happened at Arefu.

**2 HOURS LATER**

"Wow, that sounds extreme." Josh said, pretty amazed.

"You don't know the half of it." John said.

"I can tell, well we better get Ian off to Arefu." Josh said, motioning southwest.

They began walking off in the direction of Arefu, Ian in tow.

**1 HOUR LATER**

"So, you got him back?" King asked.

"Safe in one piece, now where's the caps you promised us?" Cade asked, getting down to business.

"Dammit.. Here's all we can manage." King said, reluctantly depositing 500 caps in Cade's hand.

"Well, that solves monetary issues," Josh said, unholstering his rifle and facing the bridge, scanning for raiders "Let's get out of here!"

"I hear that!" Andy shouts.

**25 MINUTES AND 54 SECONDS + 89.9 MILLESECONDS LATER**

About a mile away from Arefu, they had come across a camp of raiders. John and Andy had climbed onto a hill, John set up his assault/sniper rifle combo on a rock, scoping out the raiders, counting 10-13 of the bandits.

"Alright.. Andy, show us what that rifle can do.." John whispered to Andy, wondering what his rifle did, as it didn't fire projectiles, and he hadn't fired it yet.

"Okay.. Watch this.." Andy said, taking aim and firing.

Andy's rifle kicked back into his shoulder like a real gun would do, but instead of a bullet and a crack of a small explosion, a high pitched screech and a beam of light shot forth, going through one raider's chest, and through another's head.

"Shit.. That's what a laser rifle does.. Too bad they can see us now!" John said, seeing the raiders look at the duo of John and Andy who were on the vantage point.

"Show me what your rifle can do!" Andy shouted, taking cover as a hail of gunfire erupted, just narrowly missing his head, and chipping at the rock. John put his crosshairs on a raiders head, and well, pack it up, fight's over. For that raider. John moved his crosshairs to another raider, in a makeshit sniper tower on a rocky outcropping. John's bullets made short work of the raider, who thought he was safe, even though he was the one in the most danger. Half of his head exploded, in a gruesome sight that John didn't have time to look at. John shot a raider who was running headlong toward the vantage point, and made a stunning realization.

His sniper functionality on his rifle didn't run on assault rifle ammo, but .308 bullets, like a normal sniper rifle. John hadn't grabbed ammo for sniper rifle when he had left the truck, and decided to switch to a single shot mode that used 5.56 ammo like an assault rifle. It didn't have the kick or the brutality of the sniper rifle, and some of the raiders could take a bullet. What they didn't realize is that John firmly believed in the double-tap, and he would apply a shot to the chest and then the head of the raiders, providing a sadistically humorous scene in which a raider would run forth, get shot, try to get up, stand up weakly, and then they finally get shot in the head.

John killed about 4 raiders this way, leaving the count at 7. He switched to full auto and sprayed the rest of his clip at a raider, but the raider managed to take cover. Behind a car that looked slightly operational. Operational enough to explode. Josh unpinned a grenade lobbed it at the raider, who had looked up just in time to see the grenade fly through the air, landing in front of the car, then rolling under and doing what a grenade does. Boom.

Not only did the grenade explode, it made the car explode in a large mushroom cloud, like a mini-nuke. The raider had tried to run away, but the explosion propelled him forward fast enough that he smashed into a rock, headfirst. John didn't even bother with the double tap, even if he could, because he was out of ammo.

The explosion had taken down 3 raiders leaving 4 to die. Too bad one of them had a missile launcher and was aiming it at the vantage point where John and Andy were hiding. Andy was the first to run, jumping over the hill, rolling and then standing back up and rejoining the team. John fired a shot off at the raider, and jumped over the rock, aiming his magnums, firing wildly at some raiders. It took down one, and another was caught at the wrist. Well, now it ripped off his hand and left his wrist a bloody stub. The raider fired off a shot, but it harmlessly hit the hill behind John, although John didn't hear the crack as the bullet hit the rock, he just assumed, because what he thought was a sharp pain and being knocked down.

John ran out of ammo, holstered his magnums and then he ran the raiders, kukris drawn. He slashed as he ran by, cutting the two standing raiders' throats. He walked over to the to the disarmed raider (very.. punny..) and stabbed him in the chest with both kukris and finished him off.

"You guys scavenge these guys, I'm gonna go up the hill and check on the guy in the sniper tower!" John shouted, making his way around the rocky outcropping and started to walk up the hill. He glanced to his left just in time to see a giant of a man slam a sledgehammer down in front of him. The man missed John's foot by a few inches, giving John time to jump back and draw his two kukris, not noticing the blood dripping from his right hand, leading up to the wound. The raider lifted his immense hammer and swung it horizontally at John. It hit John's kukris, knocking them out of his hands.

"Fuck!" John exclaimed, but Josh was the only one who heard it, and he thought John had tripped or something. Too bad it was more of a "cry wolf" then "I just dropped my gun, better pick it up." And when John was in trouble, he yelled fuck, when he just messed up, he yelled shit. Too bad Josh didn't realize this.

John decided to take the chance to punch the raider in the face while he was recovering. John's strong punch caused the man to loosen his grip on the hammer. John grabbed the hammer, but got kicked in the shin and pushed back. The raider tryed to finish off John, but as he raised the hammer above his head, John grabbed a nearby large rock, and hit the raider with it. The raider fell back on the ground, dropping his hammer. John took the large hammer and tried to smash the raider with it, but the man rolled away. The raider stood up, and John rammed the hammer into the man's stomach, causing him to bend over, clutching his stomach. John moved beside the raider and hit him very hard in the heel. The man roared in pain and fell on his knees, looking up at John. John hit him with the hammer, horizontally, but not too hard, the purpose of the blow was to weaken the man.

The man was still on his knees, somehow not falling on all fours. The man looked at John angrily, knowing this was the end, and that this pale Vaultie would be the end of him.

"Any last words?" John asked the man, who was still glaring.

"Fuck you."

"That's what they all say."

John readied the finishing blow, raising the hammer high above his head, and bringing it down extremely hard on the top of the man's head, like an executioner bringing down an axe on a murderer. The only sound made was the _woosh_ of the hammer crashing through the air, the disgusting crack of the man's skull, which somehow did not burst, and the _pop_ of the man's spine. The corpse fell over, and John tossed aside the hammer, and picked up his left-handed kukri. He slid down the hill, and retrieved his right-handed kukri. He made a stunning realization when he had reached down to pick up his knife. He noticed the bloody wound, and the grey and red bullet, and the crimson blood running down his arm.

_I got shot? I really expected a lot more pain. Guess I'll have to wait for somebody with a laser rifle to shoot me._

"Hey! You okay!" Josh shouted to John.

"I got shot! I don't feel anything! Is that bad?" John shouted back.

"You'll feel it if we don't get you some stims!" Josh shouted, alarmed.

"Stimpacks? I have 10!"

**1 HOUR AND A LONG WALK LATER**

Josh and Cade had patched up John pretty good, although it wasn't that hard, because he wasn't shot in a joint, and it was a bullet from possibly the weakest gun in the Wasteland. The group had arrived in Megaton, and decided to go to the bar at Moriarty's and hang out.

"Hey! I know you! You're that angel guy!" A voice called out to John from the other side of the room, it was Maria, the dancer from John's first night in Megaton.

"What? I'm no angel!" a drunken man shouted at Maria.

"Not you beardie! That guy! With the bandage!" Maria responded before running up to John and giving him a hug.

"Thankyouthankyousomuch!" She said very fast and in a voice louder than normal.

"Uhh.. What? Oh wait! You're that one girl, aren't you?" John asked.

"Uh huh, silly dilly," Maria said, letting go of John and grabbing him by the right hand and leading him over to her group of four friends, "Meet John! He saved me!"

"Uhh.. Hi.. Can you please let go of my hand? I got shot." John said, having a feeling that the Wasteland's population of homosexual babies was about to increase.

"Hey John, I heard you helped me out a couple of nights ago!" a girl John recognized as the other dancer, Lauren.

"It was nothing, just saved you from being raped.." John said, his pale face turning red.

"Hey John, I heard you saved my sister from rape. Thanks, she would never have shut up if she got raped, I'm Nicole." A girl who looked similar to Maria said.

"You wouldn't care if your sister got raped?" John asked, bewildered, embarassed, and tired. He wanted to find a nice Vault to crawl into.

"I would care in the first few weeks, but worse happens everyday. Rape is one of the lower crimes around here. You don't get killed for it, they just cut your dick off." Nicole said, teaching John yet another rule of the Wasteland.

"Yeah, well.. I gotta go.." John said, desperately trying to get away from the awkward situation.

_**Three days in a post apocalyptic Wasteland and I'm still getting embarassed when girls try to talk to me? Smooth John, smooth.**_

__"No you don't!" Maria said, grabbing John by the right hand and pulling him back over.

"Ow! Hand! Bullet wound!" John exclaimed.

"Sorry, want me to kiss it to make it better?" Maria said, John noting how she hadn't really adapted to the Wasteland style of life, which was kill, take the dead man's ammo, be tough if in a city, repeat. John then realized he hadn't really adapted either.

_**No matter how much I try to be nice, I'm still shot at. Or grabbed where I got shot.**_

"How would that help? I got shot, not made fun of!" John said, pulling his hand away.

"Wait... You got shot?" A fourth girl piped up.

"Yes.. Why do you think I have a bandage and a bloodstain?" John responded automatically.

"You could have been bit, scratched, slashed, or stabbed." The girl replied.

"Good point, what's your name, by the way?" John asked.

"I'm Harley! How are you?" The girl replied.

"Pretty good.. I got shot and had to kill a couple people.. Like 20.. How's yours?" John responded.

"Oh, it was great! We shot a super mutant and fought a mole rat.. Oh Maria! Do you remember the raider you hugged?" Harley said, getting off topic. John had a feeling she did this a lot.

"All they need is love, if we don't love them, who will?" Maria responded, clearly not knowing the way of the Wastes.

"He tried to stab you.. Oh! You remember that super mutant who-" Harley said, before being interrupted by the door opening and rich looking man walked in.

"Does anybody want to know how to make 6,000 caps?" The man said, John wasn't able to see his eyes through his large, dark sunglasses and the stylish fedora he wore over his cream-colored suit.

"Yes..." Cade responded, his voice laced with suspicion.

"Clear the super mutants surrounding Lucky's Grocery Store, near Tenpenny Tower."

* * *

Gee willikers Batman! A cliff hanger!

Okay guys, thanks for the support and reviews! Keep'em coming! Also, I'm going to upload a new chapter every Wednesday, just so you have something to look forward to in the week. Also, this is the end of the Blood Ties story arc, and the start of a new arc I call "Rise of the Wanderer's Army". I hope you like what's in store for you!

**SPECIAL THANKS**

To Ethan, my editor!

To Jackie, my sister and loyal reader!

To Josh, my friend and fellow Wastelander!

To , one of the best authors on this goddamned website! Go check him out!

To all my friends and family and other assorted bullshit!

To Serj Tankian, The Offspring, brentalfloss, and The-Adventures-Of- for providing the music I listen and write to!

To all my reviewers and supporters! Keep the reviews coming! You guys make this story continue to come out!

To the Thumbs Up Crew, KPE/Ethan, Kitten Mittens/Maria, Bokky/Nicole, and I, Huckle/John!

To Cade for being awesome!

To Lauren for being in this chapter!

To Captain Delicious for killing then rebirthing my taste buds as gods!

**REVIEW RESPONSES**

mayhem in a box: Thanks Andy, your name and your story is awesome!

CadeatFirstBloodProductions: You're still alive, aren't you? And Josh did infact, blow shit up.

Im Not Dat Crazy: No, you rock, man. You reviewed.

: The barrel's metal, what do I do now?

GWNN: Thanks, and I'm still alive, and thanks for the snack money.

Nicole: Liar, you did wait.

cryptidhunterglw: You are gay, I was picturing you as you act. Pwnt bitch!

Captain Delicious: You aren't a perv, you just get chicks.

Brookie Cookie:): That's what she said.


	8. Megaton Massacre

**Chapter 8: Megaton Massacre**

"Just how many mutants are there?" Gage asked, his eyes lighting up when he realized how much 6,000 caps could buy as he was only payed a small percentage of the Arefu cash.

"We have a rough estimate of about 30. And the price is 6,000 caps each, so you will make a nice bit of pocket change." The man said.

"Just.. Who are you?" John asked, eyeing the man suspiciously.

"I am Maxwell Gerald Burke, you may refer to me as Mr. Burke." The man said putting out his right hand. John showed him the bandage, and the man's hand receded, John thought he saw a silver flash of a knife, hidden in the man's cuff. John suspected the man liked to kill silently, and hide it.

"I'm.. Joseph Whitehouse.." John said, lying about his name so that the man could not put out a hit on him if he pissed him off. And he sensed Burke was easily pissed off.

"Nice to meet you.. Joseph. Do you know anybody who would prefer to make some money?" Burk asked John.

"I know a few, and can find a few more. I seem to have a skill at making friends." John replied.

"Well, get a team of about 20 and meet me here at 1:30 tomorrow." Burke said, before walking past John as if he was not there, and sitting in the corner. Gob immediately came over to Burke and handed him a glass of the fancy yellow/white wine.

_**How in Hell could I get a team of 20 by tomorrow? And what's a "super mutant"?**_

__As it turns out, John was in way over his head. And not in the blood of the yellow-green bastards.

John turned around and walked over to his group, which had started talking with the group of Maria, Nicole, Harley, and Lauren. A new member also had joined the other group, a girl a few inches shorter than John, with shoulder length brown hair. John walked through the crowd that had formed from the 11 people, simply to find out who this new girl was. You can't be too careful in the Wastes. Unless you just shoot everything that twitches, and if it's still twitching after you shot it, shoot until out of bullets. John had now approached the girl, and asked her name.

"Excuse me, who are you?" John said to the girl, who looked to be about 18, a year younger than John.

"Oh hi! You must be the one they call John!" The girl said, a bit too happy in a world that was pretty much death, destruction, and human flaws. With a tad too many inhuman flaws, if you get what I mean. And the fact that she put John into a huge bear hug made her seem a bit too happy. And in a world like this, too many people like destroying happy than making happy. Well, some people really enjoy making happy. Some force happy on others and destroy happy.

"Urg! Yeah.. In the flesh.." John said, nearly crushed by the girl's bear hug.

"I hear you are such a good person! And that raider with the sledgehammer? You managed to kill him with a bullet in your hand!" The girl said.

"With all do respect.. It was a C42, low-grade chinese pistol.. Mass produced.. And you're crushing me." John said, finding it very hard to breathe in the girl's fierce hug.

"Oh, sorry," The girl let go, "My name's Lizz."

"Nice to meet you." John said, rubbing his wounded hand.

"You need some stimpacks.." Lizz said, eying John's hand.

"What will those do? Aren't they just a painkiller?" John asked.

"Pain solver." Lizz corrected.

"What?"

"They can heal very good. Two, and you might cure that old disease, cancer or whatever. I don't have it, why should I care?" Lizz said, oblivious to the once common disease that was nearly oblivated by the Great War. Too bad the radiation scared cancer away and brought more radiation poisoning than had been seen in recent years. About a 400% increase.

"So.. I won't need this bandage anymore?" John asked, pointing to the bloody rag that substituted for a bandage.

"If you get the bullet out, you'll heal very good. Let's go see Doc Church." Lizz said before grabbing John on the wrong hand a bit too hard and leading him to a ramshackle building that read "Docters Ophiss", infact, almost every building in the Wasteland was ramshackle or in ruins.

"Ow! Wrong hand!" John said, before being dragged into the dust, his plea unheard.

**1 HOUR LATER**

After dealing with an unpleasant Doc Church, who tried pricing them way too much. A few slaps from Lizz had set him straight, to the tune of 69 caps (heh heh), which was a large dent in the money John, Cade, and Josh had gotten for the Arefu job. The pair walked outside of the walls, simply to see the sunset, which perplexed John, since his value of time had been "Lights On" and "Lights Out" and "Hacked Lights That Stay On Because You Messed With Circuits And Locked The Door So Guards Couldn't Get In", and mainly because it was the only private place where they could apply the medicine.

"So now we got the bullet out.. Just inject the stimpack into the boo-boo." Lizz told John, who looked at her strangely after the last word. John promptly did so, but when ever he injected the stim, the sting from the needle hurt very bad, but when he took it out, the wounds he had on his arm vanished almost magically. The only memento from the bullet was a tiny red mark, which would disappear in about a week.

_**She may be mean to liars, thieves, and cheats, but she sure does talk like Dad did when I was little.**_

This memory struck a chord in John, and it showed clearly in his face. He knew where his dad might be, but he couldn't go there unless he had enough money.

"What's wrong?" Lizz said, sounding like Amata did when Butch had burned John's Pugilism Illustrated that one day when he was 12. This memory struck another chord in John, and a tear formed in his eye.

"Umm.. Nothing. Just remembered something." John said, trying to hide the sorrow in his voice. He wasn't very good at masking his emotion.

"Like what.. Oh.." Lizz said, noticing the big yellow 101 on John's back, "Do you need any help?"

"No, it's just.. I won't be able to see my friends for a long time, and in the Vault, I knew everyone, and most were trustworthy, out here, I can't trust anybody, save for a few." John said, wiping the tear out of his eye.

"It's okay.. You can vent with me.." Lizz said, trying to console John. John fought back more tears, cleared his throat, and stood up.

"Sorry.. I'm not in the best shape, mentally that is. I miss my friend Amata, I miss my Dad, and , hell, I even miss Butch. He was a bully, but he didn't shoot me like some other people try to do." John said, before starting the walk back to the door, which was left open. A flaw that could have proved fatal.

As John and Lizz were walking to the door, they didn't notice the 15 or so armed figures. John thought he heard Stockholm grunt, but it was probably just a cough or something. But then Stockholm, or more precisely, the corpse of Stockholm, fell over the railing and hit the ground with a thud. If that 10mm bullet hadn't killed him, landing on his head from a 20 foot drop would. John quickly turned around and drew his assault rifle. Lizz was confused, but snapped out of it when John pulled her into cover behind a large boulder with him.

"Shh... I think there might be raiders around.. Be quiet." John whispered to Lizz, who saw the corpse of Stockholm, and nearly freaked out. John managed to silence her the old way by putting his hand over her mouth.

John took a glance above the rock, and saw two raiders, slightly downwind from him, laughing at how Stockholm had died, apparently one of them had a silenced, scoped pistol. John switched to 5.56mm single shot and aimed at the raider. It was hard, due to the sunset, but he managed to hit him in the head with the most deadly piece of metal that that raider had encountered. Two of his friends didn't know what hit them either, because John put bullets in both of their brains, rotted as they may be. Another raider nearly saw John, but a bullet in the head could really mess with your vision.

4 down, 11 still standing, and still stupid.

The four raiders John had killed were apparently a scouting party, so when another group of four showed their ugly heads, John promptly put a bullet in all four, making them pile on top of each other.

8 down, the other 7 clueless.

4 other raiders went around to the other side, near where the caravans set up. John shot one, who fell on top of his buddies, and one of them squeezed the trigger on his assault rifle, firing off 5 shots before he was silenced. By a knife in the throat, wielded by another raider who really didn't know how a stealth operation went. And it was no longer a stealth operation because the whole of Megaton had heard those shots, and came to the gate, aiming assorted weapons, like 10mm SMGs, pistols, or the occasional Brahmin Dung-Slinger. It didn't kill, but it could literally blind.

The Megaton Settlers tried to rush out the door, but the raiders overcame the larger numbers with explosives and a hail of gunfire, the settlers were mowed down, barely getting a shot off. John realized that the only way to save the town was to kill the other group of 4 that was unloading on the settlers. He reloaded and switched to burst fire, and hit two of the raiders, until the other raiders were covered in brahmin dung and shot by the mob. The other 3 hadn't revealed themselves, but John noticed them in cover from his vantage point. The sun had nearly set now, and it was relatively dark, but to a person who had lived in a tunnel his entire life, it was perfect lighting. He didn't want to fire over Lizz and scare her, because she was paralyzed with fear.

John holstered his rifle, and unsheathed his two kukri (the real spelling, I've been misspelling it all these chapters!) and managed to sneak closer to the raiders. He thumbed the part of the blade that was designed so blood could easily run off and not make the handles slippery. He then sprang into action, stabbing into one raider's back, and slicing another raider with his free hand. He pulled his blade out of the man's back, a task made easy by the shape of the blade, and swung his two kukri at the man, who dodged.

As the man recovered, he sliced back with a regular kitchen knife, but John ducked and did a miraculous spin-slice in which he ducked the knife, sliced the man's Achilles Tendon, and sliced the man's throat with his other kukri. The man's slit throat sprayed blood, getting on John's armor and on his face, but John casually wiped it off, and pushed the still standing raider to the ground. He then turned to the crowd and shouted,

"Anyone want to make an extra cap?"

**1 HOUR LATER**

John and the group were in Moriarty's bar, but instead of the usual rowdy partying, it was a meeting with some mercenaries who wanted to join in on the super mutant job, about 9, which brought the group up to 20. John had a gut feeling that the numbers were going to rapidly reduce the next day, and not because of the Megaton Massacre, as it was already being called, or the funerals of the many settlers who lost their lives in the battle.

John had zoned out when Cade was interviewing the potential comrades, and whittled the group down to the 9 they needed, as the group of women had decided to accompany them on the job. The remaining mercenaries were named Cory, Policaro, Michael, Pingel, Ethan, Will, and the three siblings Daniel, Jackie, and Franko. They all shared an uncanny resemblance to John, which freaked him out. He was going to ask their last names, but they were interrupted by Burke.

"I see you have gathered your team. Good, meet me tomorrow for your briefing, and pay in advance." Burke said, before going into the VIP room.

"Pay in advance? Do you think he means paying us extra?" One of the mercenaries, Michael, asked.

"Indeed, now, go get some rest. You have to travel far tomorrow, and it would be a shame if some of you were exhausted during the b- extermination." Burke said, and John noticed his aversion to the word "battle". That gut feeling intensified.

* * *

This was a very hard chapter, mainly because I had no ideas and I was very, very tired. I hope it's good enough to pass. No review responses today, I'm tired.

Special Thanks

* * *

To Ethan, my lazy ass best friend and editor!

To Jackie, my sista!

Not to Daniel, my asshole brother!

To Franko, my critic brother who has made me strive to make this story (more) original! Keep an eye out for new story arcs and such!

To the rest! I don't want to name them, I'm fucking exhausted!


	9. Super Mutant Mayhem

**Chapter 9: Super Mutant Mayhem**

"How much extra?" Michael exclaimed.

"1,000 caps, added to what I'm already paying you." Burke said, like it was pocket change.

"What!?" Gage nearly shouted, "That's practically a fortune!"

"Not if you live in Tenpenny Tower." Burke said, flashing John a fake, but foreshadowing smile.

_**Maybe there's something else he wants to happen..**_

__"Now, all of you, get to bed. There is much.. Travel to be done." Burke said, dismissing them, as some of them already were making their way to the common room. John began to go to the common house, and that prophetic, sick feeling didn't leave him.

**4 HOURS LATER**

John turned down the corridor, excited it was his 15th birthday. One year from getting a job. He was practically dancing, thinking of how cool it would be to be the combat instructor, his dream job. One more way he could kick Butch's ass. As if that thought had sparked fate, Butch appeared around the next turn.

"I heard you've been telling your Daddy about us." He said, sounding ominous.

"What? No!" John replied, confused.

"Well.. Would you shut up if I did this?" Butch said, sound evil, and brandishing a switchblade.

John dodged the initial swipe, but the next attack wasn't aimed at John. Butch brandished a laser rifle out of seemingly nowhere, and shot at something in the distance, but instead of firing 1 laser, it shot 3. It went through the figure's back, through the stomach and lungs, and out of the body. John ran towards the body, but before he looked at the face, he awoke with a cold sweat.

"Just a dream, Johnny Boy.. Or is it?" He said, before falling back onto the bed, and managing to force himself to sleep.

**5 HOURS LATER**

John awoke, the feeling intensifying.

_** Who was that, in the dream? Was it prophetic? Or was it just my fears?**_

__"Hey, you awake?" Gage asked John.

"Just woke up, how long have you been up?"

"About an hour, I'm just cleaning my gun. I can't have it jamming in the middle of a battle." Gage said.

"I should too, but we need to stop by that truck again, I'm out of sniper rounds." John said.

"We could walk there, it's what? 2 klicks from Megaton? We weren't supposed to meet him 'til 12:30, it's 9.. Fifteen.. Ish.. We would be back by 10."

"Sounds like a plan, who should we bring?" John said.

"Umm.. The girls, the rest of the mercs seem to be in good shape."

"Why just the girls? Why not Cade, Josh, Andy, and at least one of the mercs?" John asked.

Gage just winked. John got the drift.

_**This guy is such a dumbass. Why did I even let him save my ass?**_

**30 MINUTES LATER**

John, Gage, Lizz, Rena, and the rest of the girls who had joined the group were on their way to the supply truck. More accurately, they were at the supply truck, picking out guns like groceries in a supermarket. Not that any of them knew what "groceries" and "supermarkets" were.

"Oo! Oo! What's the caliber on this one?" One of the girls called out. John recognized her as Maria.

"Um.. It looks like a .44 Magnum.. And stop pointing it at me. It looks loaded." John replied, shifting out of the way of Maria's bad jokes and painful bullets.

He looked around for a case that said '.308 Rounds' and soon found it. He loaded a clip onto his assault rifle, and found a bandolier for some extra rounds and loaded all of his .308 clips onto it. He also restocked on ammo for his magnums, his assault rifle's main function, and looked for a whet stone or knife sharpener for his kukri.

He spent the next five minutes sharpening his two kukri, hoping Maria hadn't found a bigger gun. Then he looked up, and someone had sat near him on the "Confiscated Weapons from Chinese Citizens" crate, and the next thing he knew, she was talking to him.

"Hey! What's your name?" The girl asked.

"John.. Umm.. What's yours?"

"I'm Harley, what're you doing out here?"

"Kinda got evicted from the Vault. Daddy issues, to say the least." John really wanted to get off the subject. Infact, he didn't really want to talk. Feeling like one of your only friends will die is a very, very bad feeling, and a deterrent to talking.

"Oh, what happened?"

"I really, really don't want to tell anybody about it? Nothing against you, I just don't want to talk about it." John tried to avoid the angry tone in his voice, but it couldn't be helped. He didn't really like talking to women anyway. Especially when they ask about the worst thing that's happened to you.

"Oh.. I see.." Harley said, obviously offended.

_**Women. They get offended when you should be.**_

__"Wait.. I think I hear something outside." John wasn't saying this to get out of the conversation. He could have sworn he heard raiders setting up around the truck. He peeked outside a window, and saw a raider looking for signs of life. John aimed his rifle, and the raider lost his. John quickly ducked, and the raiders just thought that an accidental discharge had killed their partner. They didn't care, although they were just a small band of five. John whispered "Raiders" to his fellow partners and Maria instantly brightened up a little too much for someone in severe danger. Infact, she took the scoped .44 Magnum she had and fired off three shots at the raiders. They all connected. With one raider. And she only alerted the raiders to their presence.

"Dumbass!" Gage yelled at Maria, who was instantly offended.

"Mara! You should be shot!" Nicole yelled at Maria, forgetting her name on purpose, as she was prone to do.

"Duck!" was what John shouted at the foolish, offended, and very, very lucky girl who had ducked, two bullets narrowly missing her head.

John switched to auto, popped up, and shot at the exposed raiders, killing two. Another raider attempted to flee, but he was stopped by three Rad Roaches jumping onto him, one latching onto his face, and they started to bite. The raider stumbled backwards, falling over the rocky outcropping the raiders were on. His fall, and the Rad Roaches' and his lives, ended on a large boulder that the raider had slammed into, head first. His body also crushed the Rad Roaches who had killed him.

"Wow, he was tough," John said sarcastically, "Let's get.. Home."

**30 MINUTES LATER**

John, and the rest of the team with him, returned to Megaton to find a large funeral in procession. It was apparently for the settlers who were decimated in the batlle, a grand total of 18, decimating the town's small population. Some settlers were openly crying, a rarity in the Wastes. They were burying Stockholm, apparently the final corpse, in a dug out ditch, about 3 feet down. Simms, who looked to be fully healed by the wonder of stimpacks, even looked more solemn then he usually did. John quieted down, and saw Maria breaking down into tears.

_**Theatrics. Men can't fake them, and women seem to be great at them. Did she even know anybody here?**_

__John didn't ponder on that for long, and turned his eyes onto the ceremony. Apparently they didn't want the ceremony to go on too long, as they didn't want to be outside the city walls too long.

John zoned out, wondering about the battle later in the day, and what a "Super Mutant" was. He would find out soon enough. A few minutes later, Simms had finished his speech, and they were shovelling thick, dry sand onto Stockholm's corpse, because it could not be called dirt by anybody who'd seen the now rare substance. All of the Wastelanders began walking back toward the gates, eager to get on with their lives. A new guard, this one with an eye patch, opened the gates, as the settlers were not eager to have a repeat of the night before. John checked the time on his PIP-Boy, and it read "10:13 A.M.". John would have time for talking strategy with Cade, Josh, and the other mercenaries.

**2 HOURS LATER**

After talking about strategy in Moriarty's bar before it opened, as Gob let them in for the cost of enough caps to pay Moriarty off, about 500, the rest of the Arefu cash, Mr. Burke arrived, seemingly letting himself in.

_**The sneaky fuck picked the lock and thought we didn't notice.**_

"I see you have figured out a plan." Burke said, stating the obvious.

"Basically, yeah." John said, his hand ready to go to his pistol. He didn't exactly trust Burke.

"Well, here's your pay in advance." Burke said as he threw 20 bags of 1000s caps onto the ground. Most in the group just stared at it, wide eyed.

"Now that that matter is taken care of, you must really go on your way to Lucky's Grocer to do what I'm paying you for." Burke said, turning on his heel and leaving.

"You heard the man, let's go!" Gage said, being the first to get up and walk to the door, John and the rest followed suite.

**2 HOURS LATER**

The band of mercenaries arrived at Lucky's with nothing really eventful happening, just John finding out something that made him wonder. He and the three siblings, Jackie, Daniel, and Franko all shared a resemblance and a last name. He pushed the thought out of his mind, because he heard some disturbing things from Josh and Cade about Super Mutants.

For one, they care about nothing but killing and making more Super Mutants.

Two, they are about 7 feet tall, and that's the little ones.

Three, the older they get, the bigger and stronger they get.

Four, they have big guns.

All very good reasons to stay away from them, unless on a job. Like John and the mercs. As they looked over the ridge they were on, John caught a glimpse of one. He/she stood very tall, had a .32 hunting rifle, a considerably weak weapon, and was yellow-green in skin tone. John looked at Cade and Josh, and they nodded. John unholstered his rifle, set up the stand, and took aim on the mutant. It's head exploded just like a normal human would.

_**Now let's see how they take 5.56 mm rounds.**_

He switched to the other semi auto mode, and fired twice at another mutant. They both hit him square in the face. The mutant grabbed it's face in pain, as one bullet had hit it's eye, and fell over dead as it accidentally pushed the eyeball to mush and poked it's brain. Then, another mercenary, named Pingle fired several shots at an approaching mutant. And his gun wasn't silenced.

All the mutants ran out, and one had a large Gatling Laser. The large, even more unhuman looking brute fired his gatling laser at the group that Pingle was in. It took down three mercs, Pingle, Maria, and Cory.

_**Well my paycheck just got larger.. I didn't even like that Pingle guy anyway. But Maria.. I shouldn't think about it.**_

The mercs scrambled for cover, and John dug in deeper. He fired at two smaller mutants with the sniper function, and subsequently two mutants were missing their heads. John noticed the larger mutant readying his laser again, and firing at another group. One of the deadly lasers pierced a merc named Policaro's shoulder, and John saw Harley get disemboweled by another laser.

_**I have a bad feeling that I'm about to see a lot worse.**_

__He was. A grenade was tossed near where Gage had ran to, and he was running from the grenade. When it exploded, he stumbled, but was still running. Until the larger mutant dropped his gatling laser and unslung a laser rifle. John knew what about to happen, and he switched to auto and sprayed at the mutant. It didn't even flinch. It aimed the gun, and Gage looked at the creature in horror. He knew what was about to happen, but he ran even harder, having ran into a wide open space. The mutant fired, three lasers advanced toward Gage and burst from his chest. He stumbled, as John looked on in horror. Gage slowed down, and fell to his knees, then fell face first into the dust. He didn't move.

Time seemed to freeze, and John started to change from surprised, to sad, to angry. Very, very angry. He stared intently at the mutant, who was firing at other targets, ignoring John.

_**That freak killed him.. Now he's going to get a taste of reddened steel.**_

John ran at the mutant who killed Gage like a man posessed. He WAS posessed, by the simple desire to slaughter this.. This thing that killed the man who saved his life. John's two kukri lashed out, giving deathblows to mutants who seemingly ignored their killer. He was nearly coated in the other mutant's blood, he kukri ran red. He jumped at the mutant, springing off of a nearby rock. Just as he jumped, the mutant turned and butted John in the face with his laser rifle. John hit the ground, but rolled and got up quickly, like nothing happened, although his cheekbone took a hard hit, it was a surprise that it didn't shatter, or break.

"My name is John Kusnir. You killed the man who saved my life. I owed him a beer. Prepare to die." John said, nearly emotionless.

The mutant simply grunted and aimed his rifle at John. It clicked when it's trigger was pulled. The mutant tried to hit John with the butt of the rifle again, but John ducked and delivered a nasty slice under the mutant's armpit. It severed the tendons in the mutant's right arm, making the arm useless. The mutant was right handed, fortunately. For John.

The mutant tried to swing the rifle at John like a club, but John ducked, stabbed the mutant in the side, and spun so that the kukri cut through the mutant's now useless kidney. John also saw some intestines poking out. The mutant didn't seem to notice. John stabbed his left kukri into the mutant's shoulder, and jumped onto the mutant's back. John held onto the kukri so tight he was white-knuckled, and started stabbing the mutant in the throat. It took about 14 stabs to finally make the mutant give up and die. All this happened in the middle of a warzone.

John pulled his two kukri out of the mutant, his left kukri ripping through the muscle on the shoulder, and the right kukri nearly took out the brute's throat. John looked over his shoulder at the combat zone, and noticed a very large mutant.

_**Nah, my eyes are just playing tricks on me.**_

They weren't.

The mutant got closer, and someone who was running from the mutant, Michael, realized he was going to die, so he turned around and fired on the mutant. The mutant swung his.. Fire hydrant mace, at Michael, shattering the merc's head.

John thought Michael was a genuinely funny guy, and he had a newfound hatred of Super Mutants. The mutant tried to hit John, slamming his fire hydrant mace onto the ground, but John rolled out of the way. He had an idea, and his quick thinking could have either saved or damned him. John ran up the fire hydrant, and sprang off of the mutant's large hand. John climbed atop the Behemoth's head, and stabbed the mutant in the eyes with his two kukri, blinding the Behemoth.

The blinded brute reached to it's face, grabbed John, and threw him to the ground. John slammed into a soft patch of dirt, bruised and aching, but was otherwise unharmed. His kukri were still in the Behemoth's eyes.

"Over here!" John shouted, getting to his feet. He quickly ran to the other side of the mutant. The mutant slammed his fire hydrant down, and John repeated what he did before, and climbed atop the Behemoth's head. He wrenched his two kukri out of the beast's eyes, holstered the knives, and unpinned a grenade. He jammed the grenade deep into the Behemoth's right eye, not even thinking about what he was doing. He practically slid off of the mutant's head like a slide, hit the ground, rolled and kept running, he turned around, and the grenade exploded, leaving a gaping hole where the beast's eye socket should be.

The beast was not yet dead. John fired a few Desert Eagle rounds through the hole, two magazines. Now it was.

* * *

No notes, no special thanks, and no review responses, I don't have time, I'll put them in later.


	10. End Mutant

**Chapter 10: So Long and Thanks for All the Stims**

John watched the Behemoth stumble about, and it's pillar sized legs finally gave out. The beast didn't move after it fell, and it landed on some of it's kin. They didn't move either.

John fell to his knees, despite being in the middle of a killzone. He dropped his two kukri, and fell forward, not able to hold in the tears.

_**Gage is dead! Maria is dead! Most of my friends are dead! I'm in a fucking Wasteland after the fucking apocalypse! Civilization committed suicide and I'm left to survive in the destroyed and burnt remains!**_

After John finished grieving, he looked around. The mutants had mistakened him for dead, since he wasn't shooting, and was slumped over. The mutants were getting smarter, and had decided to retreat to the rocks and boulders, drawing some nearby raiders into the conflict. The raiders seemed to be waiting to kill the victorious faction, but the mutants noticed them and managed to overwhelm them. John saw a raider have his arms ripped from his body by a larger Super Mutant, who was wearing a leather cap with goggles, which John remembered seeing on a "pilot" or something in an old holotape.

The man screamed, but stopped whenever his arms were separated from his torso. The mutant, who acted like the Master of the other Brutes and Super Mutants, took a bite out of the raider's arm, and started beating a female raider to death with the disembodied arms. (I really had to make the "I'm going to eat your arms when you're dead, human!" reference. Don't judge me.)

A raider had broken away from the carnage as his friends were torn to pieces. He had a look of pure fear on his face, he was young, about John's age. He ran, tripped, fell and scrambled away, only to find himself staring into John's face. John had watched the raider run away from his "comrades" who were being torn apart, and had drawn one of his magnums, the left handed one. It was aimed right between the raider's eyes, the silencer touched his forehead. The man looked into John's eyes, and begged for his life.

"Please.. I need to feed myself.. I just joined today, they said they would feed me.. I haven't killed anything innocent.. Please.." The raider begged, tears in his eyes. John looked away, and pulled the trigger. His gun clicked, as he hadn't reloaded after killing the Behemoth.

John was just as surprised as the man, and simply said "Go."

The raider scrambled away, not being shot or even noticed in the carnage. John then turned his eyes to the mutants. They had destroyed the pack of raiders, minus the escapee, and were looking for something else to kill. They saw John first.

John looked at the pack of yellow demons, and whispered under his breath, "Coming soon, Gage. See you in Hell."

Just as the mutants took aim, a shot rang out. Surprisingly, John didn't have a hole in him. A mutant, now with no face, fell to the ground. The mutant with the pilot cap looked at his fallen brother/sister and roared in rage.

"I'll rip your eyes out hum-" He was stopped shortly when a bullet found it's way into the mutant's throat. The mutant reached to it's throat, and fell to the ground.

John watched wide eyed as the four remaining mutants were gunned down. He looked behind him to try to see his savior, and caught a glimpse of a tall man, in a long trenchcoat, wearing sunglasses and a fedora, which made it very hard to see his face from a distance, and he was holding an unscoped .44 magnum. John quickly looked at the pile of mutant corpses, then turned to look at the man. He was gone. John saw a mutant rushing toward him, a rotten plank of wood raised above his head. John tried to shoot him, but he still hadn't reloaded. Another shot rang out, and the mutant's blood splattered on John's breast plate.

John didn't bother to look.

_**Finally somebody who doesn't want to kill me.**_

John finally reloaded and scooped his two kukri from the ground. He scanned the surrounding area, and there were no mutants or raiders around, and the constant chatter of gunfire had stopped in the past to mutants. No angered screams or bloodcurdling shrieks rang out. John really hoped that this meant the battle was won for the mercs. He didn't want to be an avenger again. He looked over to where the battle had unfolded earlier, and saw a bunch of mercs celebrating and yelling and dancing. John could spot Cade and Josh among the crowd.

He ran over to join the crowd, and noticed that only Jackie, Franko, Daniel, Andy, Will, Ethan, Lizz, Nicole, Lauren, Cade, and Josh survived. 9 out of 20 died against the super mutant menace. The mercs decided to not focus on the sad, and rejoiced at how much money they made.

"We made it! We fucking made it!" Cade shouted.

"We almost died, but then six shots rang out, and all the super mutants were dead!" Lauren added.

The group was all happy that they won the battle, except for Nicole. She had allowed herself a single tear, which was a sign of weakness. John was wondering why she had allowed herself that tear, but then he looked over at the mess of organs and blood that was (past tense) Maria. John felt a slight pang of sadness, but ignored it. He was going to have enough money to go into the city and find Dad. But Nicole was left alone in the world.

In a way, they were counterparts of one another. Both had lost the only family they had, with one major difference. John was able to find Dad, Nicole had found Maria.. Or what was left.

John's thoughts turned to Gage, and he ran towards where Gage was laying. He rolled Gage over so his chest-side was up. He was pale and lifeless. In hysteria, John took one of the stimpaks he was carrying and injected it right where Gage's heart would be. Nothing happened. John gave up, shut Gage's eyes and walked away, a sick feeling in his gut. He stumbled behind a boulder and vomited the squirrel-on-a-stick he had eaten for breakfast.

**3 HOURS LATER**

As it was getting late, John swallowed his grief and got the group to stay in the grocer, and they had started a campfire. They used whatever they could find, taking trash, old pieces of wood, and the like and putting them into a pile, then Andy shot it with his laser rifle set on low. It started blazing in a few minutes, assisted by the fatal weapon on stun.

"Sooo... Where's everyone from?" John asked, desperate to get his mind off Gage and was scanning the horizon for any surviving mutants.

"I'm from The Pitt." Andy said, gathering some surprised looks.

"What!? Nobody's there who isn't a slave or a raider, and you don't have skin leisions!" Josh said, clearly surprised.

"Actually, I'm not from The Pitt directly, I was born about 40 miles away, in some small settlement whose name I can't remember, and I lived in a settlement called Old Brighton for most of my life. I came down here when the town was enslaved, and the raiders abandoned that place. I got lonely." Andy replied with a sly smile.

"Brighton.. Sounds familiar..." John muttered under his breath, remembering he had heard it somewhere.

"I'm from some place called Linsvile." Lauren said, bringing John back down from the thought cloud.

"I was born in Paradise Falls," Josh started, casting a dark mood, and some people muttered 'slavers', "I enslaved some people.. I wasn't proud of it. I left, the first chance I got. I took three of the bastards down with me." This revelation about Josh cast a shadow about the campfire, and they didn't notice the 5 dark armored figures creeping in the shadows.

* * *

Daddy's back!

Haha, sorry I didn't get a chapter up this past week, I was out of ideas and nobody except for two people reviewed Chapter 9.

Special Thanks

* * *

To Josh, RGillespie94, and Ethan for being the only people who reviewed Chapter 9!

Review Responses

* * *

RGillespie94- It does help.

Josh- I'll try to work on that.

Ethan- Thanks for the compliments!


	11. Lost in the Wastes

**Chapter 11: Some More Goodbyes**

"What's Paradise Falls?" John asked, showing his relative rookie status in the Wasteland.

"A settlement," Josh began, "Where slavers live. Please tell me you know what a slave is."

"Aren't they from Africa?"

"What's that?"

"Some place across the ocean."

"What the fuck's an ocean?" Cade asked John.

"It's a huge body of wat-" John's lecture was interrupted when a shot rang out and Cade hit the ground. John's eyes opened wide in shock, but then anger took over. Whoever was out there just shot one of his best friends. He turned to where he had heard the shots, and more bullets decided the air was their home. Most hit the ground, but one ended in Will's shoulder. John had started sprinting towards the dark figures who had guns, and practically dive-tackled one of them.

John pulled out two his kukri and planted one in the man's throat. A man kicked John in the chest, knocking his other kukri out of his hand and the other remained in the corpse of the other man. John rolled backwards onto his feet, and struck a fighting pose. The man who had kicked John had a combat knife, and he held in a poor "I'll kick your ass" pose.

As we all know, showing your supposed superiority is not a good thing to do in the middle of a fight to the death. The man made a stab with his knife, and his overconfidence caused it to be slower than it should be, and John dodged it easily. John grabbed the man's hand, put it behind his back in the "chicken wing" position, and pulled up until the man dropped the knife. John quickly grabbed the man by the neck and pulled him to the ground, and slammed him into the dirt. John grabbed the knife, and the man had a knife sticking out of a gap in his armor.

John looked up and saw Josh open fire on the other men. Two fell due to his assault rifle's fire, and the other made a desperate run with his shotgun. He missed. Josh charged him, hit him with the butte of his assault rifle, dropped the rifle, picked up the man by his breastplate, dragged him over to the concrete wall of the grocery store, and bashed the man's head against the wall, hard.

"Who sent you?" Josh asked the battered man-in-black, with venom dripping from every word.

"Talon... Company.." The man, who was now revealed to be a mercenary, replied.

"I can tell by your armor, dumbass. Who. Fucking. Hired. You." Josh asked, sounding darker than he had ever been around other people.

"I.. Ow, fuck... D-don't... Know..." The merc replied, bleeding profusely from the gash on his forehead.

"Bullshit." Josh said as he dragged the man over to the fire.

"Oh God! Please! No!" The merc screamed as Josh held the man over the fire.

"Who. Fucking. Sent. You." Josh said, threatening to put the man's head in the fire.

"I don't know! They don't let you see your contacts!" The merc screamed back.

"Again, I say bullshit. Into the fire with you." Josh said, sticking the merc's head into the fire for three seconds. Of pain.

"Ah! My God! Please! Stop!" The man screamed.

"Who sent you?" Josh pulled the man out of the fire, and it seemed the man had "remembered" something.

"I don't know his name.. Some business kind of guy.. Might've been wearing a hat... I don't know..." The man said, crying from pain.

"Not enough, but I guess that's all you know. Here's a faster death." Josh said, and before the man could scream, Josh took out his old 10mm pistol and shot him in the head.

"Let's get out of here." Josh said, turning to the rest of the group, who were staring at him, surprised.

"Wh-why in the Hell did you do that!?" John asked, appalled at how Josh had tortured the merc.

"He was Talon. He would'nt have talked if I hadn't tortured him as painfully as I did." Josh replied.

"What's Talon? And who hired them?" John replied, showing his newbie status again.

"Some very rich and very evil mercs. Not like us." Josh replied casually.

"Okay, well... We should get going," John replied, "Give Cade and Will stims and patch them up, we'll start out early, and follow the Potomac.. Or what's left of it." John said, eyeing his injured best friend.

"Alright, some people should stay behind with us. Two injured men and a former slaver equals free caps out here." Josh said.

"Noted, take whoever you like." John said.

Josh took Ethan, Nicole, Jackie, Franko, and Daniel. And of course Cade and Will, who were bandaged and stimmed that night. That left John with Andy, Lauren, Rena, and Lizz.

**10 HOURS LATER**

John's scouting party woke up, said goodbye, and north-west.

**1 HOUR LATER**

They arrived at the Potomac within an hour, nothing really happened along the way, just a few encounters with a new species called "Radscorpions". They were large bugs with poisonous stingers. Stay away. They were on a rocky ridge, not that high and it overlooked the Potomac.

"Wow.. Looks beautiful.." John said, watching the bright sun rising over the horizon, casting a brilliant shine on the murky, irradiated water. It's an impressive sight if you had spent most of your life in a dull, dark, cave, surrounded by artificial light and dull metal surfaces, laced with lead to combat radiation leaks from the outside.

"Prettiest thing I've seen in years... Death is a big downer... For me and other people." Andy said, looking at the sight too. But, all good things come to an end, and this one shattered catastrophically.

A shot rang out. Lizz fell to the ground, clutching the left side of her chest. She shook uncontrollably and stopped suddenly. She didn't even open her eyes. John was the first to act. He pulled out his magnums and opened fire on the raider pack. His luck seemed to have run out, and all of his shots missed. A bullet managed hit him right above the heel, and John dropped his magnums. Just desserts were in order, and when one of his magnums hit the ground and accidentally discharged, hitting a male raider square in the crotch.

John leaned onto his bullet hole-less right leg, and unslung his assault rifle and fired on the pack. He killed one of the five, with the one who was hit in the crotch curled up on the ground in fetal position. To John's horror, he saw Lauren get caught in a wave of assault rifle fire, and 5 bullets hit her in the chest, and she fell and did not get up. A raider took out a Jackson 10mm pistol, and shot at John. It hit him in the shoulder, right between where there is a small gap between the shoulder pad and the breast-plate. A deadly gap.

The bullet caused John to drop his gun and stumble backwards because he had put more weight on his left leg, which made him standing 75% erect (no pun intended), and he saw Andy dive into cover and start blind-firing at the raiders with a 10mm sub-machine gun he had kept on him. John saw one raider be caught in the gut, but his armor held strong against the relatively weak weapon, and another raider was hit in the head and fell backwards, head over heels. He wouldn't heal. Rena followed suite and jumped behind a boulder, but none of her shots connected.

John's eyes closed, and he fell off of the ridge, hit a large boulder, which broke his fall, rolled off, and finally came to a rest by the river bank.

_**Dammit... Coming Mom... It's gonna be nice to meet you..**_

**14 HOURS LATER**

John awoke, and surprisingly, he didn't see his mother or his father, or angels for that matter. Infact, he was closer to the boulder, away from the irradiated water. His shoulder and leg were bandaged, and he noticed the rest of his stims had been injected into the injured areas. A medical brace had also been fitted onto his left leg.

_**Somebody alive seems to like me.. I wonder if Cade, Josh and the rest are still alive.. And Andy and Rena...**_

John decided to put those thoughts out of his mind, and focused on sitting up. He used his right leg, which he hit on the rock when he fell to push him up against the boulder that had saved his life, in a way. Sitting upright got his blood flowing faster, and gave him more energy.

**3 MINUTES LATER**

John had managed to get on his feet, and stumbled around. He checked his Pip-Boy for directions, and began the long walk west, injured and with only two large combat knives for protection.

_**Life's a bitch.**_

**2 HOURS LATER**

After walking on a sprained leg and a leg that was shot. He limped, shifting his weight every few steps, and arrived at an old deserted building, with strange structures that had "GAS PUMP! $5 A GALLON!".

_**Huh.. Gas.. Sound's familiar.. Maybe I fell asleep that day in Brotch's class? I better stop for the night, it's getting dark. Funny, when I was awake it was dawn, now it's 6:45, the sun's fading.. And as much I seem like it, I'm not nocturnal.**_

__John pushed open the door, closed it, and had the sense to lock and barricade the door. Never could be too safe. He saw a matress in the corner, hobbled over, and fell over instantly, crushing the skeleton on the bed and not caring.

**12 HOURS LATER**

John slepted well, and woke up around dawn, which was the safest time of day in the Wastes. The nocturnal Yao Guai, which he heard were mutated bears or something, had went to sleep, and the mythical Deathclaws and vicious dogs were just waking up. John had never met a Deathclaw face to face, and from what he heard, he didn't want to. He sat up on the matress, looked at the skeleton he had slept on, and thought of how tired he was the day before. He checked the map on his Pip-Boy and noticed he was within an hour of where he had marked Megaton.

_**It's time to get crackin' and get my lazy ass out of bed.. Sorry Skully.**_

He moved away the chair he had barricaded the door with, and unlocked the door, and started walking.

During the walk, his mind wandered. He wondered why he was still alive, and who had patched him up. His thoughts turned to the Mysterious Stranger who had saved his life during the mutant fight. That seemed to fit.

_**Why would he help me? Maybe.. No, he can't be.**_

John's mind continued to wander.

_**What happened to Rena and Andy? Did they make it? And Lauren and Lizz.. My God... Gage.. And everyone else.. I need to get to Megaton... Did Cade make it?**_

__A tear came to his eye, and he continued on, mourning and walking at the same time.

**3 HOURS LATER**

John, after a long and agonizing walk, arrived and saw the giant hunk of metal that meant safety. Megaton. The bastion of life smack-dab in the middle of Hell. It was about noon, and the blazing sun was high in the sky. John hobbled the final 200 yards to the door. He banged on it, calling out "I'm fucking alive! Let me in!"

* * *

Damn, what is with this dude and cliffhangers? Hee hee. Special Thanks and RR down further. Also, I've decided to not do the "Cameo for a Review" thing anymore.. Actually, I stopped that awhile ago. Reviews are very much appreciated.

Special Thanks

* * *

To Ethan! The editor!

To Frost! A favorite author and somebody who needs to learn to review!

To anybody who reviewed!

Review Responses

* * *

cryptidhunterglw - I didn't bring you back, I just lied so you would review.

Captain Delicious - Thankee kindly, I hope I captured that sense of emotion in this chapter.

Side Note

* * *

If this chapter seemed extremely late, blame my editor for not getting back to me on time. I was forced to upload it, checking it myself. G'day.


	12. Back from the Dead

**Chapter 12: Look Who's Back**

_**Who was that guy who saved me? He couldn't have been Dad, Dad wasn't as tall as him. Damn. . . Dad? Where are you? Galaxy News Radio. . . My only lead. . . But I can't go there with these wounds! Dammit. . . He better be there, with an extra large jug of purified water! And a fucking teddy bear!**_

__"Ohmygawd! It's you! You're alive! The hero in the Massacre! Come right in!" The new gate-guard, a man with an eye-patch and bandana, yelled down at John. The large doors that kept Megaton safe opened, and John stumbled in, coughing and hacking from the dust disturbed from the doors. His eyes stung, but when he opened them, Megaton was literally a sight for sore eyes. A crowd had formed, thinking that the "Vault Kid", idolized as the savior of Arefu, the guy who stopped the Massacre, and one unkillable mofo, was there. He was, but he didn't exactly look like a living legend. John looked around, and was a bit surprised by all the people, and he lost his footing, but caught himself on his hands.

John got up again, walking down the hill, toward Doc Church's place. He tripped on a rock, and stumbled toward the crowd, but somebody caught him.

"Hey there, you okay?" A girl with a familiar voice said. John looked up, and to his surprise, he saw Rena.

"Holy shit! You're alive!" John exclaimed, thinking everyone but him had perished at the Potomac.

"I can say the same to you, how are you still alive? You must have broken something! Tell me on the way to Church's." Rena said, slinging John's arm over her shoulder.

"I hit a boulder, which must've broken my fall, and I woke up, thinking I was deader than dead gets, but somebody had patched me up!"

"Creepy. . . Me 'n Andy thought we were goners too, and Andy took a nasty shot to the hand, but luckily he kept his fingers," Rena began, "The fuckers were closing in, and we both looked at each other, we couldn't think of last words. One of them fuckers walked between us, and the most remarkable thing happened. The raider turned to face me, smiling with his broken and rotted teeth, and he said 'Dun keel dis one. . . She's a purdy one!'. When he finally shut up, Andy had picked up a large rock, and threw it at the raider. It hit him in the back, not doing much but making him stumble, and it gave me the time to draw my sawed-off and hit him in the face. His corpse moved in the wierdest way, moving forward, stumbling, but thrown back from eating lead, and he slammed into the ground. He didn't get up, and I had blood all over me. The three remaining raiders, the ball-less one had recovered, and was aiming his pistol at the rocks screaming 'I'll fucking kill you!', and the other two were readying their rifles."

"Damn. . . How'd you get out alive?" John asked, curious. They had just gotten past the crowd, and were walking down the "steps" that lead to center of town, where the bomb was. John looked at it nervously.

"Well, I heard one of those raiders prime a grenade, shout something stupid, and throw it into the air. I took a peek out from cover, and while that deadly hot potato was in the air, I heard a loud crack, like a magnum going off. The grenade exploded mid-air, and I just stared at where the grenade was a moment ago. Another loud crack, and the back of the guy who threw the grenade's head exploded. It was creepy, because he stood there for a second, not moving, and then he fell onto his knees. Yet another crack, and the other standing raider flew back, and didn't get up. We saw the mysterious gunman, and he seemed to appear out of thin air, walking up to the downed raider, and well, you know what happens next." Rena said.

"Where'd the mysterious stranger go?" John asked, curious.

"I dunno, I looked at Andy, and that guy was just. . . Gone." Rena said, her voice trailing off.

"Odd. . . I woke up completely bandaged, but why didn't you guys come down and get me? You could have easily slid down the hill and picked me up." John said, his voice a little suspicious.

"It's not that easy, you know, we would've been stuck down there, we couldn't have gone through the river, and we thought you were dead. It was a huge fall, how did you survive anyway?"

"Hit a rock." John said simply, and him and Rena were climbing the steps to Doc Church's "hospittle", as it was called by the common folks of Megaton. Rena helped John up the ramp, which was an old hunk of metal that had "Unit d A r" written on it. Rena pushed open the door, and John limped in.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" The mock angry voice of Church said.

"Just got shot and left to die, nothing serious. Might have a few broken bones, too. Nothin' serious. Go ahead and take your fucking time. I've got all day to bleed out." John replied, matching Church with his own mock agression.

"Alright, tough guy, where were you hit?" Church asked, not amused at John.

"In the shoulder blade, and I think in the heel."

"Alright, lemme take a look," Church said, moving John to an operation chair, and removing his bandages, "What the hell? The bullets are removed! Did you do this yourself, with your bare hands?"

"No, I woke up that way. Somebody took out the bullets, and injected a half empty stim into my shoulder and heel, now fucking patch me up." John said, intimidating Church into getting out 2 doctor's needles.

"I hope this stings, you little asshole," Church muttered under his breath, jamming one stim into John's heel, and hitting the plunger, injecting the miracle syrum into John's heel, causing it to close instantly and leaving only a tiny white scar. Church stood up, and practically stabbed John's shoulder with the other stim, and injected the magical brew into John's shoulder wound. A flicker of pain erupted across John's face for a second, but disappeared as fast as it came.

"Now, that'll be 100 caps, for a waste of my time." Church said with a snarl. John patted his pockets, but then realized he didn't have any money.

"Hey dickhead, here's the caps," Rena said, tossing Church a jingling bag of caps, "C'mon dude, let's get out of here and surprise the rest before they hear about you being alive."

"I can't wait to see the look on Andy's face." said John, who had a mischevious grin plastered on his face.

"He's gonna flip."

**ONE ANNOYING TRANSITION LATER**

Rena and John had arrived at Moriarty's, where the rest of the mercs were hanging out, morning their losses and drowning their sorrows.

"You ready?" Rena asked John, a silly grin on her face

"Ready to make somebody piss their pants." John replied, an eager look in his eyes.

They pushed open the door, and as soon as Andy looked up at the two figures who had entered, he spat his drink out, and proceeded to scream like a little girl

_**Oh, what a fuckin' baby.**_

__Andy fell backwards in his chair screaming,

"Am I the only one seeing this! Am I fucking dreaming!" while he was pushing himself backwards, and he bumped into the wall.

"I'm really here. You're just being a baby." said John, who walked over to Andy, and held his hand out.

"How are you alive?" Andy asked, bewildered.

"I'm a force of nature. You can't stop me, now get up." John answered. Every surviving merc was staring at John, who was standing there, the superhuman who took on the Behemoth, who united them, who just couldn't die, proving himself again. Josh walked down the stairs, and stared in disbelief at John, helping Andy up, and all eyes were on John. The Wanderer was home.

**MANY TEARFUL REUNIONS LATER**

"You. . . Were saved!" Josh exclaimed, not believing that his friend was there.

"In a way. Whoever patched me up didn't get me to shelter, just dragged me away from the water, but, yeah, in a way." John said, finally back among his friends, who were calling themselves The Wanderer's Army in his honor, just because he shot a few scumbags and stabbed a giant scumbag.

"Hey John, we got some presents for you!" Andy called out.

"What are they?" John replied, walking over.

"You know how you lost some precious items? We just happened to find them, and we decided to clean them, to put on your marker. Now, we can give'em back to you," Said Andy, who was holding out John's rifle and his magnums. John's eyes grew tenfold.

"You. . . Found them! This is fucking awesome!" John exclaimed, taking his rifle and his pistols and putting them into their holsters, but he noticed something missing. "Where're the silencers for the Deagles?"

"Well, they broke. Whenever they hit the ground, one of them landed on the silencer, which snapped, and the other one broke in a close encouter with a Yao Guai." Cade said, stepping out of the crowd.

"What's a Yao Guai? Nevermind, so, how was your healing process?" John asked.

"Felt like shit. The trip back was no fun either. We got stopped by some Outcast assholes." Cade answered. The Outcasts were a highly advanced faction in the Wastes, it was rumored that they had broken off of the fabled Brotherhood of Steel.

"What'd they do?"

"Demanded we show them where we got all of this "interesting weaponry". I told them to go lick the side of a Deathclaw's face." Cade said, John visualized licking a Deathclaw's face, and it seemed like the stupidest thing somebody could do.

"How'd they respond?"

"Turned their guns on us, calling us "barbarians". A few grenades softened them up, and the rest ran for the hills. Which apparently housed a camp of angry raiders, and both factions tore each other to shreds."

"Damn, I wish I would've seen that." said John, marveling at how great it would be for both factions of bottom-feeders to kill each other in one battle royale.

"Yeah, well you got a nice vacation by the beach, so it was easier for you."

"My road trip back from the beach was no fun. Who's dead, who's alive?" John asked.

"Alright, a full casuality report is: Pingel, Policaro, Harley, Maria, Gage, you know Lauren and Lizz, Cory, Michael, and some others who I think you know." Cade replied grimly.

"Damn... Well, we do have quite a few mercs... What should we call ourselves?"

"How about," Cade said with a smirk "Wanderer's Army?"

"In my honor? Why me?"

"You brought us together, and that Behemoth'd of tore us all to pieces."

"You could've brought it down... It really was nothing special, I daydream about fighting dragons all the time."

"Behemoths are real."

"Prove dragons aren't."

"You have to admit Cade, he's got you there." Josh said, pointing at Cade.

"Well, fuck you too." Cade said.

"You pissed your pants when you got shot, should I tell him about that?" Josh replied to Cade, whose face went white, and his eyes got really wide.

"Wait... What?" John said, barely hiding his smile at this little fact.

"Nothing... Burke said he wants to see you!" Cade said, trying desperately to change the subject.

"About money?" John asked.

"Ding, ding, ding." Cade answered.

"Alright, where is he?"

"In the backroom, talking to Moriarty."

"Alright, thanks, pisspants." John said, leaving Cade with an embarassed look on his face. John walked up to the door to Colin Moriarty's office, and knocked twice.

"Go away, drunkard!" Came the response.

"Burke, where's my money?"

"Who is that?" Came another response, this one with an Irish accent, although John didn't know what the Irish sounded like, he barely even knew what Ireland was.

"The man who died, but Jesus came with a defrilibator." John yelled back sarcastically.

"What?"

"Joh-Joseph Whitehouse!"

"Come in!" Burke shouted to John/Joseph.

John walked into the room, turned and saw Burke aiming a silent pistol at him, and Moriarty holding a rifle. John looked surprised at the two men, and they both shot him in the chest, knocking him into the wall, but neither bullet penetrated the chestpiece of John's armor. John was slumped against the wall, but managed to draw a Desert Eagle, and shot three times. Two bullets ended up in Burke's chest, causing him to topped over in his chair, and one managed to hit Moriarty's rifle, snapping it in two.

"You little bastard!" Moriarty shouted at John, and then he managed to leap onto John's chest and punched him in the face three times. John spat out some blood, and managed to throw Moriarty off of him and into the wall. John stood, shrugged to remove some of the pain, and Moriarty jumped to his feet and pushed John into the door, which had closed behind John. It left an impressively sized bump in the wall, and the crowd outside had heard the gunshots, and was staring at the wall. In Moriarty's office, John pushed Moriarty off him again, and drew his left kukri, striking a fighting stance.

"So that's how you wanna do it, eh? Well I got somethin' for ya!" Moriarty yelled to John as he drew a large combat knife, nearly as large as large as the kukri.

"Bring it, you slimy old bastard!" John spat at Moriarty, who was the first to strike. Moriarty lunged at John, who easily deflected the knife blow and threw Moriarty towards the far wall. Moriarty stumbled a few steps, and tried to grab onto his table, but broke his computer terminal and ended up on top of Burke, who was staring at the ceiling, bargaining with God, who wasn't listening. As Burke fell into Limbo, John walked up to Moriarty, pulled him up to his feet, and slammed him through the door into Megaton, on a catwalk high above the bomb's crater. Moriarty hit his stomach off of the railing, but turned to face John, who was walking over the crumpled heap of a door.

Moriarty struck a fighting pose, and leaped into action. John deflected the blow, and countered with a punch to the face. Moriarty stumbled backwards, finding himself bumping against the railing.

"Nighty night, you ugly sonuva bitch." Said John as he drew his magnum and pulled the trigger. Moriarty fell backwards off the railing.

I'M FUCKING BACK! After a long absense due to procrastination, I've finally finished this chapter! It was a great expierience in writing, and a little bit of everything, plus one of the best fights I've ever wriiten!

SPECIAL THANKS

To every one of my readers for not ripping me apart!

To my editor!

To poop!


	13. Karma's a bitch

**Chapter 13: Seedy Underbelly = Gone**

John stood, breathless, wondering what just happened.

**_Okay, so he comes out of nowhere, shoots me, I shoot back, hitting Burke twice, then I kick his ass and kill him, and now what happens?_**

"What the hell're you doing son? I thought you were one of the good guys!" The familiar voice of Sheriff Simms shouted out.

"I am! They shot me first!" John yelled back.

"Who's they?" Simms asked, shooting John a suspicious look while aiming his rifle at him.

"Burke and Moriarty! They shot me, hit my armor, and I killed... Well, maybe I killed Burke, Colin is... Well, he's dead as dead gets. Aren't they part of the 'seedy underbelly', or whatever, of Megaton?"

"Wait.. You killed Burke and Moriarty! You really are a good guy!" Said Lucas Simms, a big grin on his face, and he had lowered his rifle.

"Thought so... Wait... What is that?" John said, hearing a crack and fearing it was a gunshot.

"Shit! Moriarty's thugs are angry, let's go take'em out, son!" Lucas shouted out, running toward the door to the bar. John followed suite. The door opened to hell. Moriarty and Burke's thugs were going insane, shooting up the place. John could see various mercs fighting them. Luckily, there were no casualties so far. John aimed his magnums at a thug assaulting Gob, and pulled the trigger. The bar patrons were running out of the bar, and John could see a settler hit the ground, with an enlarging pool of red under and covering him.

John drew his two kukri, and slashed at a nearby thug, tearing through his shoulder. John turned to his right to late to see a thug running at him with a switchblade. The blade went through a chink in John's armor, and John's mouth opened wide in pain and horror. Cade turned to see John, and unloaded a clip of pistol rounds into the thug, who hit the ground in a pool of his own blood. John collapsed on his side, and attempted to pull the knife out of his stomach. He succeeded, but slipped into unconsciousness.

John awoke in a very bright area, with skies of blue. He could see all of his deceased friends, Jonas, Gage, and one big surprise. His mother. She was shorter than John, and had dark brunette hair. She was smiling, and tears were in her eyes.

"Am I... Am I dead?" John asked himself.

"Yes... And no."

"Da- Stupid double answers." John said, smiling at the chance to finally meet his mother.

"Sorry, but this special moment's over. You ain't dead yet." Gage said as he walked up to John and punched him in the face.

John awoke with a gasp, and found himself in a familiar location: Doc Church's "hospittle".

"Dammit, this always happens to me.. Can't I just get a stim and leave?" John asked Church, who was at his desk in the other room.

"Internal wounds, you gotta stay here for the night. Get some shut-eye, and then you can leave. Now shut up, I have to work."

John fell asleep to his usual odd dreams, dragons kicking Super Mutants in the face and whatnot, and didn't wake up again.

**6 HOURS LATER**

John awoke, and through a hole in the ceiling he could tell it was dawn.

_**Oh damn... My gut feels like it's on fire... Better get out of here.**_

John sat up, and got off of the improvised hospital bed. His gut felt like it was on grabbed a stim off of a nearby table and injected it into his stomach, and most of the pain lifted.

"Can I go now, Mr. Church?" John called out, with a joking tone in his voice, despite what he'd been through.

"For one, don't EVER call me that, and two, yes, you can, get the hell out of here." Church responded, with an angry tone. John chuckled to himself, and walked out the door.

John had never been outside at dawn, and it amazed him. Everything had this darker tone about it, and everything was covered in tiny droplets of water. John looked around Megaton, surprised at how different everything looked.

"Hey! Vault-kid!" A voice called out.

"Wha-huh? Who's there?" John said intelligently, looking about, sleep in his eyes.

"We heard you were killed fighting thugs in Moriarty's saloon! Now you're walking up and about! What's with you?" Another voice said. John realized that a few of the settlers were forming into a crowd, with more coming by the second. John was a little nervous, as he was not much of a public speaker, and he knew nobody in the crowd, and they were suddenly very interested in John.

"Uhh... It was a switchblade... They don't cut deep.. Uh.. Umm..." John said, backing up slowly, the crowd coming ever closer.

"I heard you stopped the massacre! You're a hero!" A person in the crowd shouted.

"Uhh.. Not really... I just shot some raiders.. No biggie, right?" John said, adding a nervous laugh.

"You didn't save my sister! She was in the crowd, and you were taking your damn sweet time shooting those raiders!" A man in the crowd shouted.

"I couldn't save everyone! I'm not a god!" John shouted to that person, and the crowd agreed.

"God? Whazzat?" Some dim looking person in the crowd called out, getting a lot of odd looks from the other members.

"Nothing... Look, I really have to-"

"You let my Andrew die! He came along with you, and you let him get killed by the Mutants!" An old woman in the crowd shouted at John.

"He came along of his own accord.. I'm sorry for your loss, but I really have to-" John responded.

"You let him-" The woman began, before she was silenced by another member of the crowd.

"Listen, I gotta g-" John began, before one of the members of the crowd interrupted him.

"Wait! Why'd you leave the Vault! C'mon, tell us!" A rat-faced kid shouted. (Not Simms' kid, for those who are wondering)

"Hey guys, leave the kid alone! He's been through a lot today, leave'em alone!" a girl who had came upon the scene yelled.

_**I think I'm in love... What the hell am I thinking? I just really hope she doesn't like to ask questions... Too bad I'm that interesting... Everybody loves a sob story out here, I guess. Or a blood soaked beast of a life.**_

"Ah cmon Brooke! We wanna ask some more questions!" A girl who looked similar to John's savior yelled back.

"Can't you see your freaking him out? Give him some time, guys! He wants to leave, stop asking so many questions!" John's helper, Brooke, yelled to the other girl.

"Yeah, he looks very uncomfortable, but we wanna know some things!" The other girl yelled.

"Ask him later! Now leave him alone!" Brooke yelled. John mouthed a silent thank you as the crowd reluctantly went back to their jobs.

"You are like an angel, your name's Brooke, right?" John said to his savior.

"Yeah, and over there's my sister Paige. Paige! Get over here!" Brooke yelled over to her sister.

"Yeah, whaddya want?" Paige asked Brooke.

"You wanted to ask him some questions? Let's go to the dock. Cmon... What was your name?" Brooke asked John.

"John. And where's the dock?" John responded.

"About a mile to the north, along the Potomac. We constructed a shed, and we have a weapons cache there. Come on, it's a short walk." Brooke said to John.

"You do realize you're talking to somebody who's lived underground for his entire life? And it was only about a square mile long." John asked Brooke and Paige.

"Oh don't be a baby." Paige told John.

"Well, I better tell my fri-" John said, being cut off by Brooke.

"We'll send a message. Nico! Get over here!" Brooke yelled, and the short, dirty, rat-faced kid came over. His dark blonde hair waved in the dusty wind.

"Yeah lady?" The kid, Nico, asked.

"Go up to the mercenaries at Moriarty and tell them J... It's Jack right?" Paige asked John.

"John." John replied, looking a little annoyed.

"Tell them John's coming to the Potomac with us."

"Okay lady!" Nico said, running uphill toward Moriarty's, climbing up the rails, and banging on the door.

"Damn, that kid is annoying." Paige whispered under her breath.

"Paige!" Brooke scolded.

"Sorry." Paige said as the trio set off for the Potomac river.

I'm back! Alright, school is out, so I'm gonna have more time to write. Also, I've started taking Karate, so the hand to hand fighting scenes are gonna improve. So, review, and the next chapter will be out before you know it!


	14. DAMN YOU FOR NOT REVIEWING

**Chapter 14: Ambush!**

"Okay, where is the dock?" John asked Brooke.

"I told you that it was on the Potomac!" Came Brooke's frustrated reply.

"What the hell is the Potomac?" John asked, again showing his noobishness.

"Ugh! You don't know ANYTHING!" Came another one of Brooke's frustrated replies.

"Sorry... I've lived in a hole for nineteen years... And I didn't really pay attention in school." Came John's embarassed reply, his face turning red, and he started to shy away from Brooke.

"Dammit Brooke, you always do this!" Paige yelled at Brooke.

"Do what?" Brooke replied, casting Paige a threatening glare.

"Yell at people over little things!" Paige said, returning the glare.

"Uh... Guys? I think I see-" John interjected nervously, being interrupted by Brooke and Paige simultaneously.

"SHUT UP!" They both shouted.

"Really there are ra-" John said, being interrupted again.

"Gosh! Do you ever shut up!" Brooke said, frustrated.

"Just trying to tell you that-" John was interrupted by a bullet hitting the dirt near him.

"Shit! Why didn't you tell us there were raiders over there!" Brooke said, taking out her hunting rifle and running for a nearby boulder.

"You wouldn't fucking listen!" Said John, who was running toward a different boulder.

"Shut up, both of you!" Paige screamed, diving for cover behind a ruined out husk of a car.

"Stole the words right out of my mouth..." John muttered under his breath, drawing his pistols, now unsilenced.

_**This is gonna take some tricky maneuvering... I miss the silencers, but maybe the bang could be used to my advantage?**_

John took aim at a raider, pulled the trigger, and the loud crack caused some of the raiders to panic.

_**Bingo.**_

John eyed a pieced of cover to his right, an old wheelbarrow, with bricks laying out in front of it.

_**It won't stop a rocket, but it's visual cover... Here's hoping they won't notice me.**_

John took off like a shot, and fired a few rounds at the raiders, none of them managed to score a direct hit, but one managed to tear a raider's ear off, causing the woman to fall to the ground, clutching her ear in unimaginable pain.

_**Oh, like you haven't torn somebody's ear off, you cold-hearted bitch.**_

John dived, and rolled into cover behind the wheelbarrow. He peeked out of a hole in the rusted piece of metal, and could confirm five raiders, and one of them, a large, dark-skinned man was carrying a very large gun, which John thought it looked similar to a mounted gun that he had seen from pictures of the Civil War, which was one of the only times he had paid attention in Brotch's class.

_**Shit! We're outnumbered! Now's a good time for my guardian angel to show up.. And how in Hell is that guy carrying that thing!**_

John tucked his legs into his chest, getting into a crouch pose, turned around, and fired a few shots at the raiders, hitting a small skinny raider, whose skin was so red it rivaled the beams from Andy's laser rifle in terms of color. He flew heels over head and cracked his head hard on a rock.

One of the raiders managed to spot John, and fired off a few rounds towards John, who recognized his attacker as the woman whose ear he had shot off. He ducked again, and his back was touching the hot metal of the wheelbarrow. Three bullets tore through the wheelbarrow, and one went dangerously close to John's ear. John gulped, and then decided to return a volley of his own. He fired off the rest of his clip, and all four bullets hit the woman, one tearing off her other ear, one in her chest, one in the knee, which forced her to kneel, and the last one was a clean headshot.

_**There you go, you psychotic bitch. At least, I think you're psychotic.**_

John took cover, reloaded his pistol, and peeked out of the bullet hole. There were about three raiders now, and the man mountain was still firing away, and his bullets were tearing away the rock Brooke was behind. John looked to his right, and the only cover were some black and burnt trees sticking out of the dirt leading up to a boulder. He looked to his left, but he couldn't move to the left, the giant would notice him and tear him apart.

_**Out of the frying pan...**_

John tore off to his right, and started firing shots. He took down the giant's cohorts, realized he was out of ammo, holstered his pistols, and darted for the boulder. Surprisingly, the man mountain didn't notice John's gunshots over the sound of his own guns. John noticed he was out of extra clips, and he unholstered his rifle. He took aim, had the giant's head right in his sights... And his gun jammed.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG NOW!" John screamed in anger. And John's luck decided to screw him over again, as the man's gun ran out of ammo right before he screamed. John glanced out of cover, and saw the giant walking towards him, extracting the ammo case and reloading his gun.

_**What's to lose? I'm out of ammo... He's got a gigantic gun, almost as big as him... I have two knives. I'm fucked.**_

"Bring it!" Was John's challenge as he began sprinting towards the giant, unsheathing his two kukri. John primed his right hand back, and threw the knife at the ogre. The kukri spun vertically, and it hit the giant.

With the wrong end, as the handle had hit the man in the shoulder, and the kukri hit the ground with a pathetic thud.

"Fuck!" John yelled out, his eyes widening. He jumped in the air about five feet from the giant, raising his remaining kukri in a downward stabbing position. He was about a foot from the man, but his face's connection with a fist stopped his momentum fast. John hit the ground, hitting the back of his head on the ground, causing a massive headache.

The giant stood about John, smiling down at the smaller man before raising his foot.

"Any last words?" The man asked.

"That's supposed to be.. My line, asshole." John said, grunting in pain.

"Too bad, shut up." The giant said, slamming his foot down on John's chest, forming two vertical cracks next to the bullet mark in the middle of John's breastplate, forming an odd looking "101".

"Still alive, motherfucker..." John blurted out.

"What are you?" The man asked, shortly following with "AH YOU LITTLE SHIT!" as John stabbed his kukri, that he had managed to grab when the man was talking, into the mans right foot. John pulled out his knife, tossed it between hands, and picked up his other kukri, and struck a fighting stance.

"What? No weapon for me? You little coward." The man said, leaning on his right leg holding onto his foot.

"Coming from the man who brought a giant gun and a party of four against three people, two armed with weak 10mm pistols, in an ambush, and stood above a much shorter man who had rushed at him in a near suicidal rage, I'd say I'm the braver," John said, and all he got in reply was an angry sneer, "Somebody hasn't got their fix today."

"You insolent little shit!" The giant screamed, rush at John with a would-be fatal haymaker.

That is, if it connected. John had easily sidestepped the blow, as he got the man angry, and you make mistakes when you are angry. John countered with a slice across the man's back, but since it was not a deep cut, it only grazed the nerves, setting the brute's back on fire.

"Arghh... You little bastard!" Said the giant, who turned around, and threw another bone-crunching punch, which John easily ducked, sending his blade dancing across the man's stomach, slicing the nerves and creating a tiny Hell on the man's stomach.

"Ack! I'm going to tear you in half!" The man screamed, shoulder ramming John, picking him up, and throwing him. John hit the ground, did a backwards cartwheel, and managed to get on his feet in a fighting stance seamlessly.

_**How in HELL did I do that?**_

John decided to stop thinking, and he ran towards the giant, planting both of his kukri in the mans stomach, and the tips dripped with blood from the man's middle back. John stepped back, leaving his knives in the man's stomach, brought his left foot in, bowed, said "osu", and pulled his kukri out of the man's stomach. The giant's mouth was open, and he was gawking at John until John pushed him lightly on the chest, causing him to hit the ground.

"The bigger they fall... Come on, let's get moving!" John called out to Brooke and Paige.

"Did he seriously just do that?" Brooke asked Paige.

"Yeah... He is immortal!" Paige replied

"No I'm not, stop saying that!" John yelled back.

"Is he real?" Brooke asked.

"Are you on Jet? Of course he's real!" Paige replied.

"Have you seen what he does? We would have been dead if he weren't here!" Brooke replied back, her words coming out in an exasperated whisper.

"Because you didn't shoot!"

"You didn't hit anyone!"

"I think I hit the big guy..."

"No, that was John. With a knife, not a bullet."

"Well, we should start following him, he's looking at us." Paige said, and John was giving them an odd look.

"Where was the dock, again?" John asked.

"Uh.. You have it in your Pip-thing." Brooke replied, returning the odd look.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot." John said, his cheeks reddening.

Finally, it is done! Alright, I started a new story today too, called Abandoned Grace, about Oblivion, Fallout 3's sister game. Go read, review, do your thing. Well, unless your thing is not reviewing. Non-reviewers make me angry, haha, just kidding. But you better review just in case.

To my editors, Nicole-bot, and Ethan!

To RGillespie94 for being my best reviewer, keep reviewing!

To everyone who reviewed!

To Google docs!

REVIEW RESPONSES ARE DA BOMB DIGGADY

RGillespie94: You're the only one who reviewed Chapter 13. You get a digicookie.


	15. I have returned

"There it is. The dock." Brooke said, pointing at a shed about thirty feet from the river, which was extremely shallow at this point.

"Impressive... Is that it?" John asked, sarcasm in his voice, and he was a bit disappointed.

"Believe me, the outside only looks like that so we don't get robbed. Inside its like a paradise." Paige said.

"Good idea." John said as they approached the shed.

"Okay, we have a pretty good amount of guns, take your pick." Brooke said, opening the door to the shed, to a small armory filled with weapons that looked polished and well maintained.

"Holy.. How many years have you been amassing this armory?" John said, amazed.

"About 4. We enjoy scavenging, and we need new guns. So we combined the two hobbies. Not a bad idea, eh?" Brooke said.

"Not a bad one... Wait, is that what I think it is?" John said, eying something that looked suspiciously like a motorcycle. John had only seen motorcycles in holotapes and schoolbooks, but had learned a great deal about them.

"Yeah, it is a motorcycle. But we can't get it to work, mainly because fuel is so rare." Paige said, disappointed.

"We've tried to make a water powered engine, but it's just too complicated." Brooke said, frowning a bit.

"Hey, you forgot that I have an education!" John piped up, as a light bulb went on in his head.

"What in hell is that?" Brooke asked, confused.

"You seriously don't know?" John asked, even more confused.

"I think it means somebody taught him a lot of things. Anyway, what can it help with?" Paige said.

"I've studied water-to-energy conversion, I'll fill you in later. Anyway, what else is in here?" John asked, looking around.

"Actually, we have something for you. Cmon!" Brooke said, grabbing John's arm and dragging him to a clothes rack, taking out a black leather duster and handing it to John.

"What is this, and what is it for?" John said, holding the duster, which weighed a lot more than it looked.

"Well, we figured you'd get shot even more than you already did, and we found this duster on a dead guy." Paige said.

"And how would a dead guy's duster prevent me from getting shot?" John asked, confused, but grateful for the gift, as it would prevent his Vault suit from getting even dirtier.

"It's reinforced with metal plates, haven't you noticed how heavy it is?" Paige asked.

"Wow, so it's like hidden armor?" John asked, putting on the duster, and tossing the hanger to the side.

"Go pick that up, anyway, yeah, it is. I can block most low-cal guns the raiders have, but most stronger weapons can punch through, so you should take caution in large gunfights." Brooke said, pointing to the discarded hanger.

"I'm not picking that up." John said, stubborn.

"Yeah, you ar- What was that sound?" Brooke said, as the trio thought they heard a snap from the back wall. A pair of claws had torn through the hollow wall, and they all had drawn guns, Brooke picking up an assault rifle, John taking out his signature Desert Eagles, and Paige picking up a combat shotgun, pumping it and muttering "Time to fuck this guy up."

"What is that?" John asked, tense.

"Deathcl-" Brooke said, interrupted by the large creature tearing through the back wall. It was large, ugly, and had two long arms ending at hands the size of your head, with sharp claws that are as big as your hand. It had a reptilian shaped head, dark eyes, devil like horns, and a mouth full of scary looking teeth.

The party of three opened fire, shooting a volley of bullets that the Deathclaw shrugged off like it was hit with a small pebble covered in feathers. The rampaging beast knocked down a gun rack, and roared towards John. It leapt and struck out, John dodging, a gun was knocked out of his hand. John instinctively grabbed a Kukri and slashed out, leaving a nasty gash in the Deathclaw's arm, causing the beast to backhand John knocking him to the ground.

The giant monster stood over the Wastelande for a moment, raised it's arm slowly for a dramatic kill, as Brooke and Paige looked on in horror, having run out of ammo. As the arm was about to strike, it's arm high in the air, six loud, crisp, bangs erupted from the area of the tear in the wall. The beast was heavily wounded, it's arms shot to hell and half of the raised arm on the floor, roared in defiance.

"Goodnight you ugly bastard," said John, jamming the magnum still in his hands to the bottom of the Deathclaw's chin, and pulled the trigger until the gun clicked, and the beast fell to the ground, dead. John looked to the hole in the wall, and caught a glimpse of the man who had previously saved his life, the man in the fedora and trenchcoat, but in an instant, he was gone.

"Wh-who.. Who was that guy?" Brooke wondered, completely surprised, adrenaline pumping through her veins.

"I don't know myself, but I do know that he always saves my ass." John said, staring at the hole in the wall. "Welp, let's clean this up."

-

I apologize for the extended period of absence, and the garbage that was the original chapter fifteen. The long period of time between the removal of the first chapter fifteen was a period fraught with books, procrastination, school, and writer's block. Just so you know, this is the third iteration of C15, hope you guys enjoyed the hours put into this chapter, and I hope you'll like my new style better, as the books read between this chapter and the last had a lasting effect on my style. Anyway, please review, and be as constructive as you can be, and I apologize for my long absence.

It's good to be back.


	16. Second return

**Chapter 16: Simple Routine**

After disposing the Deathclaw corpse in the river, reorganizing the knocked over gun racks, and barricading the destroyed wall, the sun was dipping low in the sky, and the trio decided to set out for Megaton, as the shed was no longer safe to sleep in, for obvious reasons. The journey was uneventful, not even happening upon a single raider. The trio decided to avoid the scene of the earlier gunfight, as scavengers, human, alike, or not, would have arrived, and there was bound to be conflict.

John's PIP-Boy and the girls' own experience paid off, as they found a passage that went around the grisly scene, and was also an all around shorter trail, and safer, too. The only hostile creatures they had encountered were Radscorpions too far away to be dangerous, and there was a constant pop-pop-pop-pop in the distance, coming from the fighting in the outskirts of D.C., which made John think of his father, or more accurately, the information that his father had been around that area, and where he was headed. John had made up his mind to go to the city the next day, alone or with a hunting party, at least to scout the terrain.

As they passed a canyon overlooking the abandoned Army supply truck, John's PIP-Boy clock ticked 8, and the sky overhead was no longer yellow, but a dark blue, speckled with white dots. The only problems during the trek around the canyon was a nagging itch in John's eye, caused by the constant sandstorm of the Wastes.

At least my new duster keeps my Vault suit from getting dirty, and if some raider decides to take potshots at me, it'll keep my Vault suit from getting holes in it.

As the party walked in observant silence, John allowed his mind to wander. His thoughts primarily focused on the city, and what it would be like. He did not think that it was going to be pristine and pure, however, in fact, quite the contrary. But he did wonder what the ruins and rubble would be like to walk in, and the sense of being indoors at all times would return, as the walls of the city would be closed on him the entire time, and he has seen some of the city in the old holotapes, and the streets are not at all wide compared with the plains and deserts of the Wasteland. He wondered if he would miss his newfound sense of agoraphobia, and the air of oppression from the Vault would return, but he remembered that part of the Overseer's power was in the form of his control of light, and it was bright enough to see at every part of day in the Wasteland, as John had not seen any rain, which was now more of a curse than a blessing, as farming's stocks have gone down over the years, and the radiation the rain carried.

As the PIP-Boy clock hit 8:30, Megaton was in sight, and the group unknowingly quickened their step, trying to make it before the guards shifted positions, which took around fifteen minutes, and they did not want to be trapped outside the gates. As the lights of the city started to shine, they had started to sprint. They made it through the gates, luckily, but John's duster got caught in the gate, causing them to be delayed by the few minutes spent to free his coat. They finally managed to pull it free, and were back in the town of Megaton. The trio went to Gob's (Formerly Moriarty's) Saloon, and met up with Josh, Cade, and the rest.

"Hey man, heard about your little 'adventure' with these two *hic* wonderful dames," said Cade, giddy with intoxication.

"You know what he does to the dri-" Brooke tried to interject, but she was cut off by Josh.

"Moriarty is dead, remember?" Josh said, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Yeesh, what died in front of you today?" Paige said, outwardly annoyed by Josh's comment. Josh replied with a slightly exaggerated angry look.

Man, what a dick. John thought.

"Anyway, we ran into a.. Whaddya call it.. A Death.. Claw? Yeah, Deathclaw, a few hours ago. And I got some more armor, from the 'wonderful dames', here." John said, trying to defuse the situation.

"That coat is so se-" Cade attempted to say, but was interrupted by his own drunken fall, hitting his back with a thump. John quickly glanced at the empty Vodka bottle on the counter near his former seat, quickly at Josh, who had a mischievous smile, and down at Cade, who was attempting to swim belly-up.

"What did you put in there?" Brooke asked, looking at the once calm, composed, and now drunk off his rocker Cade.

"Red dye No. 2, it has hallucinogenic effects when combined with alchohol, but no addictive properties. Well, it also makes you do crazy shite, but that's what booze is for. Hehe." Josh said, smiling high.

"Hey, its you!" Said a slightly familiar voice, coming from a short kid in the crowd.

"Hmm..?" John said, turning his head to see a familiar face, but he couldn't place a name to the face.

"Dougie, remember? The guy who fucked you up?" The short guy said, sporting a now cocky face.

"Dude, if I remember, I nearly broke your back." John said, remembering the kid, who was still short as a stool.

"I fucking fucked you up, you little fucker!" Said Dougie, turning hostile.

"Turn down the fuck meter, calm down, man." John said, turning tense, trying to keep his cool.

"Fuck him up- blek!" Yelled Cade, vomiting a little, getting a few odd looks.

"!" yelled Dougie, as the spew of gibberish continued until John silenced him with a hard left haymaker. Dougie fell to the ground, limp, partially from drunkenness, and stayed there, writhing in pain. John turned around and sat down, back at the bar.

"Hey Gob! Nuka Cola!" Called Josh, ordering a drink for John.

"So... Anything new?" John asked.

"I got us a job. Know anything about atomic bombs?" Josh asked, with a completely straight face. John's mouth was agape, suspecting a genocide was going to be caused, "It's not like that. Our job is to defuse the bomb in Megaton without any Church members noticing."

"Church? As in the Christian or Cath-" John said, being cut off by Brooke.

"Church of the Atom. Worships the bomb, because some guy named Atom put it there." Brooke said.

"Not necessarily. They worship radiation, what comes off of water, and pretty much everything else." Josh said.

"I understand rads, but how in hell do I defuse a nuclear bomb without a church of fanatics watching me.

"That, well, it's the hardest part. I know how to distract them, though. So, Vault Boy, you better get to reading." Josh said with a smile. Dougie groaned in pain behind them. Paige kicked him, exclaiming "Shut up!".

**THIS BORDER LINE IS AMAZING, I DON'T KNOW HOW A MAN COULD LIVE WITHOUT IT**

First full display of my revamped style! Read, review, and tell me what you think of the upcoming story arcs! Also, on a side note, I punched my computer in frustration once I couldn't save this to wordpad the first time, and my first thought was that you guys wouldn't get to see this earlier. I apologize for being late, but you have to remember John Kusnir is a lazy bastard who writes in third person!


	17. Third Return

I'll be quick about this. I'll be surprised if anybody even reads this anymore. I apologize for my absence, let's hope this makes up for it.

**Chapter 17: Religion Over Safety**

John gave Josh an odd, look, and began to open his mouth to reply, but found he had no words to reply to this outlandish request. Josh noticed what John was trying to do, and tossed him a book, on the front it it read "The Construction of The Atomic Bomb".

"Hey man, I wouldn't give you this job if you couldn't do it. Also, stop by Moira Brown, at Craterside Supply, she'll let you borrow a rad-suit for a few hours." Josh told John.

"You expect me to do this in a few hours!" John said, exasperated.

"Hey kid, you're the smartest person in town. Do you think anybody here knows how to read, save for a few?" Josh said, a smile on his face.

"I know you-"

"I can only read basic words, despite my extensive vocabulary. My... Family... Didn't teach me how to read very well. I just picked up my words along my life. Anyway, go on, git!" Josh said, shooing him out the door.

As John pushed open the door, he looked over the town of Megaton, all lit up at night. He had never seen anything like it, and all of the light focused on a large bomb in the middle of the crater, surrounded by a pool of slightly glowing water. Unknown to them all, this bomb was still active, and there was another man, working against John's goals of defusing this high powered instrument of death.

The man who worked against John was a man named Kelvin, and at first glance, looked to be an average dweller of the Wasteland, besides a dwarf stature and a dark look to his eye. Kelvin was a man of many secrets, and his unremarkable appearance helped his secrets remain just that. One of his many secrets was that he was secretly a consumer of human flesh, which was once born out of necessity, and now simply because of enjoyment. He bumped shoulders with a younger man, who had the numbers "101" emblazoned on his back, buried under several layers of dust, grime, and mud. The man he had bumped into gave him a dirty look and continued walking, and Kelvin smiled to himself. He had found part 2 of his contract, who was working against his part 1.

Kelvin kept grinning to himself, and pushed open the door to the bar. John continued down the catwalks that Megaton used to move from building to building. He finally made it to the large hunk of metal, and knocked onto the hull. From what he knew about this type of bomb (the information was only slightly reliable, the class dealing with atomic bombs was laden with propaganda, and he was half asleep the day they learned the inner workings of the atomic bomb), it could only be defused by removal of the uranium core. He searched around the bomb, looking for an opening of some sort, preferably a hatch, and had no luck in finding one. He was too tired to work on a deadly explosive at this hour, and decided to wander to the common house to read his book, and to sleep.

**12 HOURS LATER**

John had spent three hours reading through the book, abridged by age, water, and disappearing pages, and had read the entire book, always being a fast reader, despite his unwillingness to learn from teachers. He had spent the last in a light sleep, unusual for him, dreaming a hazy dream of a situation that seemed unlikely. From what he could piece together, he was being attacked by a short, weak looking man who looked familiar, and was attacked by an ugly, gigantic albino radscorpion. He shrugged the dream off, even though it plagued his thoughts. He walked out into the town, drastically different during the day than in the night, as it was bustling and hot, an antithesis to the cool, calm nights that Megaton experienced.

He walked to Moira Brown's, introducing himself to her, slightly confused by her odd manner, made even odder by the drowsiness that plagued him.

"So, you're the new guy that everyone's talking about." The odd girl asked him, and he could see the beginnings of a moustache under her nose.

"Yep.. Came into town about a month ago... So, can I borrow the rad-suit, I need it to.. Uh.. Clean up some.. Brahmin dung.." John said, remembering the advice that Josh had given him, he couldn't mention the bomb to her, because she didn't want to offend the Church of the Atom.

"Sure! And you said Brahmin wrong, it's with an "ah" sound. But one thing, can ya help me out with a book I'm writing? Just tell me how life was in the Vault, jazz it up if you have to!" Moira said, grabbing John's shoulder.

"It was oppressive and smelled of evil, can I go now?" John said, hoping to get out of there fast. He didn't want to look at her facial hair any longer than he had to.

"Oh, that'll look great in the introduction! Thanks sweetie, you can go now, and when you come back, I'll have a treat for you!" Moira said, John's throat tightening at the mention of a "treat" from Moira.

He walked outside, wandered round the back, and spent 10 minutes fighting the suit, desperately trying to keep his clothes on inside the radiation suit. It wasn't working, and after looking around to make sure nobody was coming, he slipped out of his vault suit, only in thin boxers and a torn and messy undershirt, and quickly jumped into the suit. He was amazed that he managed to get into the suit without being caught with his pants down, and walked back around the building, bumping into Cade, who winked at John. John blushed and quickly ran away, hoping to forget the incident.

A few minutes later, John, having recovered from the embarrassment somewhat, and stood in the miniature swamp surround the bomb. John, entire body covered by the suit, looked for a loose panel on the bomb. He found a hole in the bomb, made by rust, and grabbed hold, hoping the suit wouldn't tear from the metal. With a great heave, the panel opened, exposing the inside of the bomb, where he could clearly see the core of the bomb. He also eyed a device on the side of the ball of plutonium (Author Note: I am ashamed to say that I don't know if either uranium or plutonium was used in the 'Fat Man' type of Nuclear bomb. Point it out in your reviews?), and realized that it was a fusion pulse device, a small contraption that could be used to set off the the bomb. He broke out in a cold sweat, typing "Fusion Pulse Charge" into his PIP-Boy, hoping that the small device had the blueprints to the charge.

Before he could even finish looking over the blueprints, he felt a pair of heavy hands pull him out of the bomb, and he was thrown onto the ground, feeling heavy kicks, punches, and rocks hitting him on every part of his torso. Mud was smeared on the plexiglass visor of the suit, effectively blinding him. The thick rubber of the suit protected him from broken bones, but even then, the blows still hurt. The beating went on for around 2 minutes, but to John it seemed an eternity.

_**CRACK!**_

CRACK!

Two loud cracks pierced the shouting of the angry mob surrounding him, causing everything to pause. John writhed in pain, nearly oblivious to the mob's pause. Josh stood before the crowd, holding a sniper rifle. John wiped the dried mud off of his visor, seeing that the crowd surrounding him was the Church of the Brotherhood of Atom, who worshipped the bomb. He spotted a few children in the crowd, holding rocks.

"You people really suck, you know that?" John said, shortly before blacking out from pain.

-

Welp, chapter 17, here it is. Hope it makes up for the absence.


	18. Its over

Hey fans, Johnny boy here. I apologize for not posting any new chapters. As you may have already figured out, I have discontinued Legend of The Lone Wanderer of Vault 101, an absurdly long title, for an absurdly long and uneventful story. The story was written in a different time in a different period of my life, and looking back, it was childish and narcissistic. I had the gall to name the main character after myself, and broke canon and logic with the duel Desert Eagles that my perfect vision of myself used. I may in fact rewrite this story, with a differently named character and a new writing style, refined over the months. I've started writing stories in my own universes, with my own characters, not characters borrowed from Fallout or people I've met. I thank you for your reviews, and I'll sum it up in one sentence below, just to give this story a swan song.

John suddenly turned purple, and then melted shortly after. Everybody died at the awesome sight that was a protagonist inexplicably dying for no real reason other than to end a story. That, my friends, is the legend of the Lone Wanderer of Vault 101.

Well, now that that's over, look out for my next great work, a story in which Ezio Auditore da Firenze is randomly pulled into the future to kill guidos at the behest of a mad god. Also, like my page on facebook: .com/GoldtheChampion Yes, I know its Pokemon, but its works.


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